More than 101,000 Ukrainian refugees found jobs in Czechia

Over 101,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled to the Czech Republic due to the Russian invasion found work in the Czech Republic, tweeted the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. According to the published statistics of the Labor Office, at the end of July, over 248,900 people from Ukraine were employed in the Czech Republic. It is roughly 39,300 more than at the end of February. The number of employed Ukrainian women increased, but the number of men did not change.

"Over 101,000 Ukrainian citizens who fled to the Czech Republic from Russian aggression have already found work here. This is based on information from employers available to the Labor Office of the Czech Republic. Most of these are long-term vacant positions," the ministry announced. 

Labor and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka previously pointed out that the Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment among EU countries and that the domestic labor market is still looking for over 250,000 workers.

At the beginning of August, Russia suspended the export of oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which leads to the Czech Republic as well as to Hungary and Slovakia, Reuters was told by sources familiar with the situation and subsequently confirmed by the Russian company Transneft. 

Transneft said it made payments for August oil transit to Ukraine's pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta on July 22, but the money was sent back on July 28 as the payment did not go through. Gazprombank, which handled the payment, said the money was returned because of European Union restrictions, Transneft said in a statement.

Russia has already reduced gas pipeline flows to many EU members, citing problems with turbine maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline as well as sanctions against some buyers Moscow being "unfriendly."

According to Václav Skoblík, an expert in new energy, about a third of fuel for motor vehicles is imported into the Czech Republic. The fuel imported from Slovakia, for example, is produced precisely from Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline. "In the event that oil stopped flowing to Europe through the Druzhba pipeline, the Czech market could gradually lack 50 to 60 percent of the necessary fuels," Skoblík said earlier.