Did the head of the Czech senate, Milos Vystrcil, announce that Ukraine would lend the Czech Republic previously donated heavy military equipment to help with the massive flooding in the region? No, that's not true: Vystrcil never said that, and the post claiming that is a hoax, a spokeswoman for the senate, Andrea Kubova, wrote in an e-mail to Lead Stories.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on September 15, 2024. It shows a picture of Milos Vystrcil with a text in Czech citing him as saying:
With regard to the floods in the Czech Republic, I have negotiated with President Zelensky in Ukraine the lease of recovery tanks, which we have donated to Ukraine, the lease of pontoon bridges, which we have also donated, and Ukraine is also offering a possible loan to the Czech Republic for reconstruction after the floods. The two billion it will cost the Czech Republic to rent the tanks and bridges, we donated, is a good price.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Sep 20 08:51:16 2024 UTC)
Milos Vystrcil never said those words and the post is a hoax, a senate spokeswoman, Andrea Kubova (archived here), wrote in an email in response to a Lead Stories query on September 19, 2024.
Milos Vystrcil visited Ukraine and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (archived here) and other political representatives, including the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during the fourth summit of the Crimean Platform on September 11, 2024. According to the Senate press release, Vystrcil mainly debated the upcoming elections in the Czech Republic and energy issues.
Vystrcil visit to Ukraine also preceded the start of floods in the Czech Republic following heavy rains on September 13-15, 2024 (archived here). Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who met the EU's Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders affected by flooding in the region in Wroclaw on Sept. 19, said the country would be able to use 2 billion euros from the EU's Cohesion Fund (archived here).
Ukraine is one of the countries that offered help to the Czech Republic after the floods, sending dryers as part of the flood relief, according to Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský's X-post from September 22, 2024 (archived here). In the post, Lipavský appreciated that Ukraine offered help even though it is currently at war. Other countries that provided help, apart from Ukraine, included Israel, Slovakia, Kosovo, the USA, Greece, and Slovenia, Lipavsky said earlier on X (archived here).
