When citizens of the Czech Republic voted in their country’s crucial parliamentary elections last weekend, they were deciding more than their own democracy’s future.

They were also determining the fate of Ukraine.

The Czech Republic — or Czechia — may be a small Central European nation, but it’s functioned as a practical frontline state in the West’s standoff with Russia.

It’s sheltered hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and procured vital ammunition for Ukraine.

An abrupt shift in Prague’s policy towards Kyiv would not be merely an abstract European drama: It would upend the logistics and political will on which Washington has relied to keep Ukrainian resistance alive. 4

On the morning of the vote, I met a 90‑year‑old woman as she inched her way to the polling station with the

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