Five Czechs Fighting In Ukraine Face Terror Charges

Prague, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Apr, 2021 ) :Czech police said Thursday they had charged five people and a company with terrorism over their involvement in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The five Czechs were detained Wednesday for taking part in the conflict on the side of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, said National Organised Crime Agency (NCOZ) spokesman Jaroslav Ibehej.

"The NCOZ has charged them... over a terror attack, participation in a terrorist group, financing terrorism and supporting and promoting terrorism," Ibehej said in a statement on the police website.

The move has come at a time when clashes between Ukraine's army and pro-Russian separatists controlling two regions in the country's east have flared up.

Kiev has been battling pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions since 2014, following Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

Czech police insisted the arrests bore no relation to the current diplomatic spat between Prague and Moscow which has seen dozens of diplomats expelled on both sides over allegations Russian spies had orchestrated a fatal explosion on Czech soil in 2014.