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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called for his country to receive EU candidate status and for a seventh EU package of sanctions against Russia in a speech to the Czech Parliament on Wednesday. He repeatedly echoed the famous phrase “we are with you, be with us” that was broadcast on Czechoslovak Radio during the Soviet-led invasion in 1968. The appeal for more European support comes weeks ahead of Czechia assuming the presidency of the EU Council.

The Bohemian Shepherd Dog, along with the Prague Ratter, is one of the oldest Czech dog breeds. It was originally used as a guard dog and a herding dog. Today it is mainly kept as a family pet, due to its friendly and gentle nature. Ruth Fraňková has more in today’s edition of our mini-series dedicated to original Czech dog breeds.

Putin’s war on Ukraine also has implications in outer space, with Russia carrying out cyberattacks aimed at crippling Ukrainians’ access to satellite services – and freezing cooperation with the West on space issues. This will be one area discussed at a space security conference starting in Prague this Sunday. I spoke to Jana Robinson, head of organisers the Prague Security Studies Institute.

Interest in hiring new employees is at a record high according to a newly released survey conducted by HR company ManpowerGroup among hundreds of Czech businesses. Particularly in demand are IT professionals, of whom there is a long-term shortage on the Czech labour market. There are also hopes that the large influx of refugees from Ukraine can compensate for the lack of talent for hire caused by long-term low unemployment.

Bedřich Smetana’s comic opera The Bartered Bride is widely regarded as a major contribution towards the development of Czech music and was the first Czech opera to achieve worldwide fame. Twenty-one different productions of the work have been performed at Prague’s National Theatre since its premier in 1866, but no interpretation has been so divisive as the most recent production, directed by Alice Nellis.

The Together alliance of three centre-right parties would receive 28.5 percent of the vote in general elections, suggests a poll released on Sunday. Behind them would be the Pirates and Mayors, who also contested elections last year together. Forming the two alliances helped the five parties enter government – but does it make sense for them to continue indefinitely? I spoke to political scientist Petr Just.

A 9801 kg bell was cast in Austria on Friday to commemorate the 9,801 church and tower bells stolen from Czech territory and melted down for munitions during the Nazi occupation of WWII. The cost is being covered by a fundraising collection organized by Sanctus Castulus, an association of bell ringers in Prague’s Old Town. I spoke to its chairman, Ondřej Boháč, and started by asking him where the idea for the memorial bell came from.

Czech architect František Sammer has been mostly associated in his country with the construction of one of the first housing estates in the style of Socialist Realism. It is less known that Sammer worked for the greatest modern architect Le Corbusier and had friends among the most important figures of interwar architecture.

Exactly eight decades ago, on June 10, 1942, the Central Bohemian village of Lidice was annihilated by Nazi forces in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. About 340 men, women and children were murdered, the village flattened. Lidice became one of the best known examples of Nazi Germany’s brutality and its legacy survives in many forms to this day.

The National Museum in Prague has brought some twenty valuable artefacts from Syria to the Czech Republic to be restored by local experts. The objects, dating back to the Bronze Age and Antiquity, will then be displayed in the National Museum’s historic building before returning to their homeland.