Andrej Babiš, the frontrunner to become Czechia’s next prime minister, said on Thursday that he plans to visit Ukraine next year after a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Babiš, who served as prime minister from 2017 to 2021, is the chairman of the populist ANO party that won Czechia’s parliamentary elections with 34.5 percent of the vote this week.
Babiš said Zelensky called him on Thursday, adding that he is “glad that [Zelensky] contacted [him].”
Babiš, who previously opposed aid to Ukraine during his campaign and vowed “not [to] give Ukraine a single crown from our budget,” appears more amenable following his call with Zelensky.
“I expressed our support to him and our wish for the war to end as soon as possible,” he wrote on X.
The Czech billionaire added that he and Zelensky met three times in the past – the last time being in Kyiv in November 2019 – and that he will visit Ukraine next year “if everything works out.”
“We also agreed that if everything works out, I will visit Ukraine next year and we will discuss everything in person as well,” Babiš added.
Babiš’s ANO party is negotiations with other right-wing parties to form a coalition hoping to conclude talks by November, according to Reuters.
Babiš had campaigned on cutting foreign aid to focus on domestic issues. Earlier this year, reports suggested he planned to end Prague’s ammunition initiative, which has sourced over 1.5 million artillery rounds for Ukraine.
In reality, Czechia covers only about 2 percent of the project’s costs, according to Balkan Insight, with other EU members footing the rest of the bill – a fact poorly communicated by the current pro-Ukraine government of Petr Fiala.
Earlier this week, Babiš appeared to have softened his stance, calling the initiative “in principle a good idea,” according to Novinky.cz.
But whether his government will follow Hungary and Slovakia in obstructing EU support for Kyiv remains uncertain.