Czechs are sending money to Ukraine in memory of the Soviet 1968 invasion
Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops, the Ukrainian embassy said on Sunday, Guardian reports.
The Czechs were using a special payment code to donate 1,968 crowns ($80) to an already existing account set up by Ukraine’s embassy in the Czech Republic to collect funds.
“Even at the weekend, dozens and dozens of payments in the value of 1,968 crowns are arriving to our account, thank you so much, Czech friends!” the embassy said on Twitter.
On 21 August 1968, armies of the Soviet Union and its allies crossed borders into Czechoslovakia, a fellow member of the eastern bloc, to crush a reform movement started earlier that year known as the ‘Prague Spring’.
The troops killed dozens of civilians and the subsequent occupation pushed tens of thousands into exile. The troops eventually left after the fall of Communist rule in 1989.
