Has the Czech Republic added Ukraine to the blacklist over statements from the Zelenskyy government regarding the quality and supply of Czech arms to Kyiv? No, that's not true: A representative from the Czech Foreign Ministry told Lead Stories there are no "blacklists" involved in its arms export screening policy toward Ukraine and that supplies of Czech arms will continue in "full force."
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on the TikTok account @world.news032 on December 20, 2023, with a caption translated into English from Russian by Lead Stories staff that reads:
The Czech Republic has added Ukraine to the 'blacklist' and the lawsuit filed by Kyiv against a Czech company involved in the production of military equipment was ignored, due to the ambiguity of Zelenskyy's statements regarding the quality and the supplies.
Below is how the post appeared on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jan 24 11:12:31 2023 UTC)
On January 23, 2024, Daniel Drake, spokesperson at the Department of Communication at the Czech Republic Foreign Ministry, wrote by email in response to Lead Stories' inquiry regarding this claim:
There are no 'blacklists' for our screening policy, unless we are referring to destinations and entities subject to international sanctions and similar restrictions. We are not even aware of the aforementioned statements by Zelenskyy ... Exports of arms and military equipment to Ukraine are continuing and will continue in full force, and given the number of companies on both the Ukrainian and Czech sides involved, it is a statistical necessity that in a certain small percentage of business cases there will be hiccups in performance/payment etc.
Furthermore, Lead Stories found no evidence supporting the claims that Ukraine's President Zelenskyy criticized a Czech military equipment producer, or that Kyiv filed a lawsuit against such a producer, or that the Czech Republic added Ukraine to the alleged blacklist. Lead Stories found no corresponding statements on the Ukrainian President's official website here (archived here), here (archived here), and here (archived here), where his statements are collected, as well as on Ukraine's Defense Ministry's website here (archived here,) here, (archived here), and here (archived here) and its associated social media accounts.
A search for the phrases "Czech Republic has added Ukraine to the blacklist," (archived here) "Kyiv filed a lawsuit against a Czech military equipment producer," (archived here), or "Zelenskyy criticized Czech military equipment producer" (archived here) conducted on January 24, 2024, using Google News' index of credible news sites did not yield any evidence-based reports on these claims.
