Are most of the Ukrainian war refugees seeking temporary protection in the Czech Republic men who might be fit for battle? No, that's not true: As of April 1, 2023 more than three quarters of Ukrainian refugees in the country were women, children, and senior citizens.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok on Aug.18. The caption reads in Czech, translated by Lead Stories staff, as:
Most of the Ukrainian refugees are not women and children.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 22 06:45:13 2023 UTC)
The Czech Republic, a country of 10.5 million people, granted temporary protection status to 504,107 Ukrainians from February 24, 2022, the start of the Russian invasion, to April 1, 2023, the Czech Interior Ministry declared in a statement on its website. As of April 1, 2023, the ministry registered 325,742 Ukrainians who had active protection status. Most of the others had returned to Ukraine.
This is a screenshot of the infographic, that is attached to the ministry´s statement:
Out of the 325,742 Ukrainians with temporary protection status, 68 percent were economically active, as of April 1, 2023. 28 percent were children, 4 percent were seniors.
Out of the productive age group, 65 percent were women and 35 percent were men, according to the ministry. This means that as of April 1, 2023, there were 221,505 Ukrainians in productive age in the Czech Republic, of whom 77,527 were men, according to Lead Stories calculations. It follows that 23.8 per cent of all Ukrainians having temporary protection status in the country were men in productive age which is not the majority.
The video contains excerpts from a CNN Prime News talk show with former Czech president Milos Zeman, who comments on two cases of violent rape, committed by 16 and 18-year-old foreigners, allegedly Ukrainians, in Prague and in Pilsen. Zeman argues in the show that the country should continue helping Ukrainians, but should also reflect on the fact that young men who are "strong enough to rape are strong enough to help to defend their country".
Interior Minister Vit Rakusan and police never officially confirmed the nationalities of the perpetrators and said during a press briefing on Aug. 13, 2023, that the overall crime rate is lower this year than in 2019, the last pre-Covid year. The violent acts, as well as Zeman´s statements, were used to spark anti-Ukrainian sentiments by pro-Russian and anti-government trolls and populist politicians on social media. Some examples can be found here, here or here.
