Today, President Petr Pavel will visit the site in Vlachovice-Vrbětice in the Zlín region, where two ammunition warehouses exploded in 2014. There, he will meet the mayors of the surrounding municipalities, the regional police director and representatives of the state enterprise Military Forests and Farms of the Czech Republic, which manages the area. Zlín governor Radim Holiš (ANO) said that he wanted to draw the president’s attention to the need to carry out an in-depth pyrotechnic survey beyond the area’s borders.
“I perceive that the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved, I want to know the opinions of the individual parties,” Pavel told the media on Monday. Vlachovic mayor Zdeněk Hověžák (STAN) told ČTK that he wants to acquaint the president with the situation in the area. “It’s a debt left over from that unfortunate event,” stated Vrbětice was hit by explosions at ammunition depots in October and December 2014. Two people died in the first explosion. Investigators suspect Russian military intelligence operatives planted the explosive device in the warehouses that triggered the explosion.
The second day of the president’s visit to the Zlín region begins with a visit to Vrbětice. Today, Pavel also has, for example, a tour of the production part of the Česká zbrojovka company in Uherské Brod. He will also meet producers of traditional handicrafts, visit the archaeological museum in Ostrožská Lhota, and later in the afternoon he will have a debate with citizens in Uherské Hradiště before returning to Prague.
