Trial of a Czech teacher for denying the war in Ukraine | outside

The teacher told her 13- to 14-year-old students in her class that “there is no war” in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. On the contrary, it claimed that Ukrainian soldiers killed the Russian-speaking population of Donbass.

When some children asked about her comments and said they had seen images of the war on television, she asked them to look for alternative sources. It falsely claimed that Czech television had links to American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros, who has been at the center of far-right conspiracy theories on several occasions.

Bednarová made other unsubstantiated allegations. For example, it alleged that Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces were flogging and burning alive Russian speakers, including children.

Some children recorded Mrs. Bednarova during class and played it with their parents at home. The parents, in turn, approached the school, which dismissed her for gross misconduct. She challenged her dismissal in court, but lost.

The Czech teacher denies the criminal charges. She says she only gave the children facts and that her comments were taken out of context in the recording.