Misleading information and disinformation circulating in the Czech environment overstate military aid to Ukraine or humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees. Almost half of Czechs believe some of these claims.
For example, a Facebook post circulated this year that exaggerates Czech aid to Ukraine, as pointed out by fact-checking server Demagog.cz. According to the post, since the start of the war until February 2025, the Czech Republic has provided Ukraine with aid amounting to approximately CZK 232 billion. The post further claims that expenditures have continued to grow since then and may likely be higher by tens of billions that are “disappearing into the black hole of corruption.”
The cited figure is not fabricated but based on data from the Kiel Institute, a respected institution, Jan Fridrichovský, editor-in-chief of Demagog.cz and head of fact-checking at the Central European Digital Media Observatory (CEDMO) explained to Euractiv Czechia. The problem lies in how this data is interpreted in the post. As a result, the final figure is overstated.
“The author of the post overlooks the fact that the Kiel Institute works with a hypothetical level of support for Ukrainian refugees and does not take into account the taxes and social contributions they pay in the Czech Republic,” Fridrichovský explained. This hypothetical amount is an estimate of the costs of supporting refugees based on an OECD migration report from 2022. Moreover, it assumes that all refugees cost the state the same amount of money and includes all refugees, including those who, on the contrary, contribute to the public budget.
“We encounter this type of false or misleading content relatively often, especially in complex economic topics with political implications, where it is easy to slip into an overly simplistic interpretation of an economic indicator,” Fridrichovský added.
According to him, it is not possible to determine precisely what lies behind the spread of such messages. “Some of them certainly arise as a result of unintentional errors, others by adopting already distorted interpretations spread, for example, by politicians. But we also encounter false posts where it is clear that their authors create and disseminate them deliberately in order to influence public opinion – that is, they are disinformation in the true sense of the word,” he said.
Almost half of Czechs believe it
CEDMO did not test Czech reactions to this specific post, but it has data on similar messages. “We have tested several disinformation narratives exaggerating military aid to Ukraine or humanitarian assistance to Ukrainian refugees so far. Particularly alarming were the findings related to a disinformation narrative whose reach and credibility we tested during the summer months of July and August 2025,” Ivan Ruta Cuker, a sociologist and data analyst at CEDMO from Charles University, told the newsroom.
In the case mentioned by Cuker, it involved a false claim that Ukrainian refugees receive above-standard social benefits and additional advantages such as free accommodation, food, or cultural activities, while Czech citizens pay for them. “This claim was trusted by 48% of Czech men and women aged 16 and over, which is one of the highest values ever measured for disinformation throughout the entire testing period,” Cuker stated.
Even more – 49% – of Czechs trusted a claim tested in 2024 that government support for Ukraine is one of the main reasons for the growing public debt of the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, 35% of Czechs considered credible the false claim that the increase in property tax occurred in order to finance weapons deliveries to Ukraine.
“For context, I would add that as of September 2025, 33% of Czech citizens perceived the arrival of refugees in connection with the war in Ukraine as a major problem, and another third as a moderately serious problem. It is considered a major problem primarily by middle-aged people with secondary education without a school-leaving exam,” Cuker added.
The Czech Republic lacks data
According to data from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, from the beginning of Russian aggression in 2022 until the end of the first quarter of 2025, the Czech Republic spent CZK 74 billion on Ukrainian refugees and, conversely, collected CZK 78.7 billion from them.
Answering the question of the specific contribution of Ukrainian refugees to the Czech economy and labour market is not straightforward. “We can provide only very limited answers. The state has access only to limited registry data, and their use on the state side is still constrained by legislative, technical, and, let us say, cultural reasons. For example, linking foreigners’ residence permits with their employment and wages is not trivial,” Štěpán Mikula and Jakub Chalmovianský from Masaryk University explained to Euractiv Czechia.
“Such a large inflow of labour can affect the balance in the domestic labour market, which understandably raises concerns. However, the conclusions of the study (Postepska & Voloshyna, 2025) show no significant short-term impacts on the domestic workforce. On the scales comparing the economic costs and benefits of migration, the labour-market costs therefore register zero. On the other hand, we know that many Ukrainian refugees found jobs quickly. It can therefore be expected that the overall outcome in the labour market will be positive,” the experts assess.
According to them, the outcome could be far more positive, as refugees often find themselves in jobs below their qualification level. “Making better use of their actual education and potential would ultimately help the entire Czech economy grow faster,” they added.
