Did the Czech Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Lipavsky attend the International Summit on Food Security in Kyiv, Ukraine, in November 2024 because he was not informed that the event was canceled as he is "insignificant?" No, that's not true: Lipavsky officially visited Ukraine on November 22-23, 2024, to attend the summit in Kyiv, which took place as planned. During his trip, he also held one-on-one meetings with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Ukrainian counterpart, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on November 24, 2024. It shows a screenshot of a Czech news website Novinky.cz article, with a headline in Czech translated into English by Lead Stories staff: "Only Lipavsky came. No other foreign minister appeared at the Ukrainian summit in Kyiv." The text overlay in Czech read, as translated:
Just a small correction - the event was cancelled, but Lipanek is so insignificant that they didn't even tell him.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Frid Nov 29 09:23:02 2024 UTC)
It is false, as the TikTok video claims, that the event was canceled and Minister Lipavsky was not told. The summit did take place in Kyiv and international representatives, officials and experts participated or sent video addresses for the event (archived here), and the then EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski was present, along with Ukraine´s top representatives.
The video uses a screenshot of a news article (archived here) from the Czech news website Novinky.cz, published on November 23, 2024, with the headline "Only Lipavsky came. No other foreign minister came to the Ukrainian summit in Kyiv."
The report refers to an official trip (archived here) by Lipavsky to Kyiv on November 22-23, 2024, during which he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, and attended the summit on food security, according to a press release published on the Czech Foreign Ministry's website on November 24, 2024. Lipavsky also visited the Ochmatdyt Children's Hospital and a demining project during his trip, which took place the day after the launch of a Russian ballistic missile at Dnipro, the statement said. The purpose of the visit was to exchange information on Ukraine's current needs and the current international political situation and express support for the country, according to the ministry's statement.
News reports by various Czech media about different aspects of the trip can be found here (archived here), here (archived here), and here (archived here).
During the visit, Lipavsky also gave a speech at the international summit, organized under the Ukrainian humanitarian program "Grain From Ukraine," where he said that thanks to the program, Ukraine provides "vital aid" for countries worldwide and by supporting them, it limits Russian involvement worldwide, according to the same Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry release.
Zelenskyy's speech and photos taken at the event can be seen here on the Ukrainian president´s official website (archived here). Zelenskyy's official statement from his meeting with Lipavsky can be found here (archived here).
The then EU´s Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski also personally traveled to Kyiv and gave a speech at the event (archived here).
Minister Lipavsky was also asked about his participation in the event in an interview with the Czech State Television CT24 news channel on November 26, 2024 (archived here). Lipavsky underlined that international leaders and officials attended or sent video addresses to the summit. He added he could not assess why the Ukrainian side did not ensure that more leaders from both the West and the developing countries attended the food security summit. He pointed out that it has been difficult to travel to Ukraine and Kyiv because of the continuing Russian attacks.
