Czechs wait for instructions on Ukraine

On the same day yesterday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared in Kyiv that progress has accelerated in the counteroffensive in the past few weeks and that we are seeing real progress, Czech Pres. Petr Pavel said in MFD that we need to be careful in assessing what Ukraine has achieved. At most, he said, it has advanced by a few kilometers. Ukraine Foreign Min. Dmytro Kuleba didn't repeat it at the joint press conference yesterday, but he said last week that those who criticize the slow pace of the counteroffensive should "shut up." His Czech counterpart, Jan Lipavský, said in late Aug. that the counteroffensive has unfortunately not achieved its goals and is slower than generally expected. PM Petr Fiala has chosen to avoid discussing the issue. Czech foreign policy is running in place on Ukraine. It's gently criticizing the current situation and is thereby somewhat ahead of official U.S. policy, but it doesn't seem to know what comes next. It's waiting for further instructions.