Prague: The Czech president has greeted a group of Ukrainians of Czech decent who have accepted his country's offer to move back to their former homeland because of the turmoil in Ukraine.


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Czech authorities have granted permanent residency for 140 people of Czech origin, with 35 landing today at Prague's Vaclav Havel Airport aboard a government passenger jet.


"Welcome home," President Milos Zeman told them. "May you like it here."


The government is providing financial support and fully covering a half-year stay in a hotel in the southern Czech Republic. In cooperation with a Catholic charity, authorities will help them find a place to live and work.


Before World War II, some parts of what is now western Ukraine belonged to the former Czechoslovakia.