Open letter calls on politicians to boost support for Ukraine

More than 100 publicly known figures from Slovakia and the Czech Republic have sent an open letter to Western leaders, urging them to boost their support for Ukraine. The appeal has been sent to British Prime Minister David Cameron, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. The letter signed by political analysts, writers, actors, musicians and directors reads: "In 1938 in Munich, while other democracies silently looked on, Great Britain and France - allies of Czechoslovakia - betrayed Czechoslovakia and, under the pretence of protecting the German minority, allowed Adolf Hitler to occupy an extensive piece of the territory of our country, eventually breaking it up and occupying it completely. Then British Prime Minister Chamberlain celebrated this act of betrayal in London by waving a piece of paper and talking about 'peace for our time'. History has shown in all its nakedness the naïveté of such an approach, but the industrial potential and human resources of the (until then) democratic Czechoslovakia were already fully serving Hitler's war machine. It troubles us that almost 80 years after Munich the situation is repeating itself. We understand the efforts of European leaders to strive for a peaceful solution via negotiations in the tradition of the values of European humanism and post-war developments in Europe. It troubles us, however, that these efforts are misused in the service of a continuation and prolongation of aggression. It was time to provide effective and extensive military and economic help to embattled Ukraine long ago".