Fact Check

Is former Czech President Vaclav Klaus the real owner of the largest Czech investment and financial group, PPF? No, that's not true: The holding was founded by the late Czech billionaire Petr Kellner in the early nineties and is now owned and run by his family. In the past, the group supported the Vaclav Klaus Institute, a think tank established…

Did the Czech central bank, or CNB, announce at the start of 2025 that it would utilize ChatGPT to forecast inflation rate developments? No, that's not true: The bank did not announce plans to use ChatGPT to forecast inflation. Instead, in early 2025, the CNB published a blog post describing an experiment it conducted testing AI's initial potential for inflation…

Is Czech Television, a state-owned TV broadcaster, funded with U.S. foreign aid grants, which could influence its content? No, that's not true: Czech Television confirmed to Lead Stories that they do not receive any funding from the U.S. government or from U.S. agencies that provide such support. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on April…

Did Ukraine lose an F-16 fighter jet because its pilot deserted with the aircraft? No, that's not true: Ukraine lost an F-16 fighter jet during a combat mission in May 2025 after an unspecified incident happened onboard and caused the pilot to eject from the aircraft, according to a statement from the Ukrainian Air Force. The pilot was later found…

Did the Czech Civic Democratic Party, the government coalition's leading party, only allow a paid audience to attend a public debate with the Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, at a pre-election event in a Czech town? No, that's not true: No evidence supports this claim. The party's spokesman, Jakub Skyva, confirmed to Lead Stories that such events are open to all,…

Is the Czech Republic donating 2 billion euros to Ukraine for medical aid? No, that's not true: The Czech Republic will reconstruct Ukrainian hospitals for 98 million euros (2.5 billion koruna) using the EU's Ukraine Facility Program funds, allocated by the bloc for Ukraine's aid. It is not the Czech Republic's money, and the amount is not 2 billion euros.…

Do the obligations of real estate owners to pay annual property taxes to the authorities mean that they do not own the property at all? No, that's not true: property ownership comes with rights and obligations, as defined by law. Owners have the right to own, dispose of, or bequeath properties, as is also guaranteed by the EU's Charter of…

Did the Czech government refuse to help citizens with financial relief for the 2024 floods, while providing funds to aid Ukraine instead? No, that's not true: The Czech government allocated and used funds worth billions of koruna from the 2024 and 2025 state budgets to assist people affected by the severe floods that hit the country in September 2024. Extensive…

Did Danuse Nerudova, a member of the European Parliament for the STAN Czech government party, known for its staunch support of Ukraine, appear on the Czech state television as a young girl, reciting a poem admiring the communist regime in the former Soviet Union and Stalin? No, that's not true: Nerudova confirmed to Lead Stories that she is not the…

Did the Czech Constitutional Court cancel the early elections in 2009 because its president at the time, Pavel Rychetsky, did not like the parties that would likely win according to pre-election polls? No, that's not true: The Constitutional Court upheld a complaint of one of the then-lawmakers against the constitutionality of the early dissolution of the parliament. The court ruled…

Did the EU establish the Temporary Protection Directive a few years before Russia invaded Ukraine, since it knew the war was coming and that there would be an influx of refugees? No, that's not true: Such a directive was already approved in 2001 following the conflicts in former Yugoslavia. It had never been triggered before March 4, 2022, when it…

Did Czech President Petr Pavel directly address citizens on the Seznam Zpravy news website in a plea to defend their country? No, that's not true: Petr Pavel did not make any such direct appeal via Seznam Zpravy. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on March 20, 2025. The person speaking in the video says in…

Did Jan Lipavsky, Czech Foreign Affairs Minister, tell U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of the European plan to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, which Rubio cited in an interview with CNN on February 28, 2025? No, that's not true. The two spoke for the first time on an official phone call only a few days after the…

Is the EU planning to seize savings from citizens' accounts to fund its new defence policy and armaments? No, that's not true: The EU plans to increase defence spending to deter potential Russian attacks and reduce military dependence on the United States, but the proposed ways of funding this policy do not include seizing citizens' savings.The claim appeared in a…

Does the image of a train carrying tanks show the withdrawal of U.S. military aid to Ukraine or of U.S. troops from Poland? No, that's not true: The image is taken from footage of rail transport of army tanks that already appeared on YouTube in 2014 and has nothing to do with 2025 events. Furthermore, U.S. military aid to Ukraine…

Were Czech flags banned at a rally in Prague to mark the anniversary of Russia's aggression against Ukraine and to show Czech support for the war-torn country? No, that's not true: One of the co-organizers confirmed to Lead Stories by phone that Czech flags were not banned at the event. In addition, video recordings of the whole event and media…

Did German diplomat Christoph Heusgen become emotional on stage at the Munich Security Conference because US Vice President J.D. Vance had earlier criticized Europe in his speech at the event? No, that's not true: Heusgen became emotional while bidding farewell as the event chairman. Both Heusgen and the Munich Security Conference explained that the video showing Heusgen's emotional reaction to…

Are Zelenskyy's statements on U.S. aid received by Ukraine during an interview evidence of corruption and abuse of presidential power for personal benefits? No, that's not true. In an interview with the Associated Press on February 1, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he did not know where $100 billion from U.S. funding went, not that he embezzled them, as…

Did the head of the Czech Constitutional Court, Josef Baxa, say that the court plans to intervene in the upcoming parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic in 2025? No, that's not true: Baxa expressed his view in general terms, not referring to a specific case, in an interview on a legal podcast. He spoke of the theoretical background on how…

Did Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ask Europe to send 200,000 troops to reinforce Ukrainian forces in the war with Russia? No, that's not true: Zelenskyy referred to 200,000 soldiers at the Davos Economic Forum in January 2025, but he did not ask for a reinforcement of his army, which is smaller than Russia's. He said that that would be the…