2022년 러시아의 우크라이나 침공과 중부유럽

Abstract

This study outlines Russian-Ukrainian relations, summarizes Czech support for the Ukrainian war effort following the 2022 Russian invasion, and compares Czech and Hungarian responses to the invasion. While the Czech Republic and most of the rest of Central and Eastern Europe have fully supported Ukraine, Hungary has strengthened its energy sector ties with Russia and confronted Ukraine regarding policies concerning Hungarian minorities in Ukraine. These differing responses of Hungary and the Czech Republic are informed in different ways by their historical memory of the Cold War. In the Czech Republic, the Ukrainian crisis has evoked memories of the 1968 Soviet invasion of then-Czechoslovakia and the dismantling of Czech sovereignty. Czechs associate the injustice of the Russian invasion of Ukraine— purportedly to control the “contagion” of freedom—with the Soviet invasion of their homeland in 1968. Similarly, some Hungarians remember the significance of the democratic developments of 1956. However, this memory is politicized by erasing any criticism of Russia as a party to the invasion and emphasizing the responsibility of the U.S. in the present situation.