Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský of the ruling SPOLU bloc said Poland was right to down Russian drones and described sanctions on Moscow as slow but effective, while opposition ANO’s Radek Vondráček questioned their impact but nevertheless backed NATO’s hard line. Lipavský declared the Visegrád group “dead,” though other candidates defended its relevance. Czechs head to the polls on October 3-4, with ANO maintaining a lead in opinion surveys.
