Children in Czech Republic verbally abuse Ukrainian girl, spit in her face
A young girl from Ukraine has encountered absolutely repugnant behavior from a group of children in the Czech Republic. Upon learning she was from Ukraine, they began to curse her home country and to tell her that "Russia is better".
The Ukrainian girl responded by saying “Russia is shit”, after which a young boy spat in her face. The incident was reported on Twitter by Anastasia Sihnaievska, the founder of the Hlas Ukrajiny (Voice of Ukraine) initiative in the Czech Republic.
Czech Interior Minister Vít Rakušan commented on the incident. “Spitting in the face of a child (in this case, because of where she comes from), is the same as spitting in the face of our whole civilization. Children just copy the behavior modeled for them. This demonstratively illustrates how some of those models are sometimes cruel and stupid,” he said in response to the video of the incident on social media.
“To say I was shocked by that video is too weak of a term. Yes, they are children, but they’re saying what they heard from adults. It’s obvious that despite all the support for Ukraine, in the Czech Republic there has long existed Ukrainophobia. Something has to be done about that,” said the former Ambassador of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Yevhen Perebyinis.
Other commentators on social media and experts in the mass media are also warning that the Czech Government and other authorities are approaching the dissemination of disinformation about Russia’s war on Ukraine and the spread of hate quite lazily. According to Jan Jandourek, a commentator for news server Forum24, the state should defend those who are unable to defend themselves.
“Some politicians and ‘activists’ are tiptoed around here as if they were untouchable. It doesn’t even occur to anybody to actually investigate Miloš Zeman on suspicion of treason. The SPD and Tricolor parrot the Kremlin’s propaganda and everybody’s fine with that. Doubting of the genocide and of war crimes gets a pass on the disinformation websties because of ‘freedom of speech’. We might as well abolish some laws altogether if we’re so afraid to enforce them,” Jandourek commented.
Many social media users have objected to the spitting incident on social media and lawyers are offering the family of the girl who was assaulted free legal aid. “We and In IUSTITIA are offering the family free legal aid and social services,” said Petra Naskosová, the head of the legal department at the NGO.
