Ukraine update: News is spreading about Prague shops denying Ukrainians entry. It’s fake.

Prague’s central railway station seems a picture of normality amid warm spring sunshine and the return of legions of tourists, who had been largely absent at the height of Covid... Yet just yards away, hundreds of Roma people are sheltering in the only place available to them since they joined the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion. Unlike other Ukrainians who have been offered refugee visas, these families have found they have nowhere to go and no one who wants them," the daily writes.

At the end of May, another tent town for refugees from Ukraine with the capacity of 150 beds will be established in Malešice, Prague, as of May 31.
At the same time, the voluntary aid to Ukrainian refugees at the Main Railway Station will end. An information point for refugees would be created at the main station.
Vit Rakušan wrote on Twitter that the people staying at the Prague Main Station are women with children, and they are not a threat to the Czech society.
Almost 366,000 refugees from Ukraine have been registered for health insurance in Czechia and the state pays the costs for the absolute majority of them as they have the required visas, health insurance companies have told ČTK.
The Czech Republic has so far granted 354,631 temporary protection visas to Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the war since its start on February 24, including 1,219 on Tuesday, some 350 fewer than a week ago, the Interior Ministry tweeted today.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin thanked the Czech Republic for its donation of helicopters, tanks, and rocket systems to Ukraine, after a virtual meeting with representatives of allied countries. Information on the delivery of helicopters had not been previously reported. The Czech military uses Russian Mi-24/35 combat helicopters, among others. Media previously listed delivery of Dana self-propelled artillery guns, RM-70 Grad multiple rocket launchers, Soviet-made T-72 tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles. The Czech Defense Ministry declined to confirm the list and does not want to release the precise value of the military material delivered to Ukraine.

Some 26,000 Ukrainian child refugees attended elementary schools and 3,800 went to kindergartens in the Czech Republic in mid-May, which is a 12 percent increase since early April, the Czech School Inspectorate said.
Half of elementary schools and one in five kindergartens struggle with ensuring sufficient capacity and teaching staff, Education Minister Petr Gazdík said.
In total, 19,301 children aged 3 to 5 and 68,983 children aged six to 15 have registered with the immigration police as of May 15, the inspectorate said.
The data comes from 626 elementary schools and 52 kindergartens. This corresponds to 70 percent of all elementary schools that enrolled at least 10 Ukrainian refugees in mid-May, the inspectorate says.

More than a thousand Ukrainians passed through the center of the Czech capital on Sunday. Most of them were women with children.
Many of them were dressed in national costumes and blue-yellow colors, in which they thanked the Czechs for solidarity and help.
During the procession in traditional national costumes, Ukrainians thanked Czechs for their support and hospitality. They chanted 'Thank you, Czechia' and sang the Czech anthem together with the Ukrainian one.
The Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Jevhen Perebyjnis, also gave a short speech on Wenceslas Square.

According to sociologist Jan Burianec, the interest in helping refugees does not leave Czechs.
At the same time, he notes a certain division within the Czech society. A new survey shows that almost half (49 percent) of Czechs would like Ukrainians to return to their homeland after the end of the war.
Roughly 20 percent of people said that refugees should stay here as long as they wanted. Eight percent don't know.
Currently, less than a quarter of respondents (23 percent) want Ukrainians to return to their country.