Last year, anti-Ukrainian incidents accounted for 21% of all cases of prejudice-motivated violence in the Czech Republic recorded by In Iustitia, according to a report on the development of hate crimes in the Czech Republic released yesterday.
The increase in such incidents has been recorded since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In the years before the war, the share was at most 5%.
The report states that in 2024, 29 attacks involving Ukrainian nationality were recorded, down slightly from 31 the previous year. In 2022, the organization recorded 41 anti-Ukrainian incidents, as well as 26 anti-Russian attacks, but the higher number of incidents that year was due to the addition of data from police statistics, according to the report’s authors. Between 2015 and 2021, the sum of anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian hate crimes accounted for at most 5.1% of hate crimes, according to the organization.
However, so far this year, the organisation has not recorded any anti-Ukrainian or anti-Russian incidents.
“This report confirms that hate attacks against the Ukrainian and Russian communities are not isolated incidents but part of a wider problem. The Czech state needs to strengthen victim protection, improve institutional responses, and ensure sufficient funding for organisations working with victims,” said Klara Kalibova, the organisation’s director.
The organisation pointed out that the results of its monitoring do not represent a complete set of all cases, but a sample. She said victims often do not report pre-trial incidents to the police. Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking people can visit the website www.bezpecnovcr.cz for more information or to report attacks, In Iustitia said.
According to the organisation, verbal violence is predominant among the reported incidents, while more than two-fifths of anti-Ukrainian incidents include physical violence. Anti-Russian incidents are more often attacks on property, according to the organisation.
More than half of the recorded attacks took place in Prague. The organisation has recorded 136 attacks due to Ukrainian nationality since 2022, and 24 due to Russian nationality. Since the beginning of the invasion, In Iustitia has also provided support to 179 people who have been targeted because of their Ukrainian nationality.
Number of anti-Ukrainian and anti-Russian hate crimes from 2015-2025:
| Year | Anti-Ukrainian incidents | Anti-Russian incidents | Total hate incidents | Percentage of total |
| 2015 | 2 | 1 | 141 | 2.1 pct |
| 2016 | 4 | 3 | 175 | 4 pct |
| 2017 | 0 | 2 | 153 | 1.3 pct |
| 2018 | 2 | 2 | 148 | 2.7 pct |
| 2019 | 5 | 3 | 157 | 5.1 pct |
| 2020 | 3 | 1 | 164 | 2.4 pct |
| 2021 | 3 | 3 | 142 | 4.2 pct |
| 2022 | 41 | 26 | 214 | 31 pct |
| 2023 | 31 | 0 | 128 | 24 pct |
| 2024 | 29 | 2 | 136 | 23 pct |
Source: analysis by In Iustitia
