Members of the Slovak Armed Forces deserve respect and thanks for their service, which they perform with professionalism, commitment and dedication, President Zuzana Caputova stated on Thursday. "Today, our soldiers celebrate the Day of the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic. They are the ones who take care of the defence of our homeland, freedom and democracy. They do so mostly far away from our everyday reality, far from the attention of cameras," wrote the president, who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The president noted in this vein that the importance and indispensability of Slovak soldiers has been recognised ever more in recent months due to the war in Ukraine.
Thursday also marked the final day of the 2022 Strong Cohesion certification exercise at the Lest military training centre, central Slovakia. Approximately 1,000 soldiers from the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, the United States of America and the Slovak Armed Forces with 110 pieces of military equipment participated in this exercise with the main goal being to assess the combat group's readiness to fulfil its assigned tasks. "The soldiers in the exercise put their experience gained in the previous training to good use. The result will be an assessment of their readiness," said Chief-of-General-Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Daniel Zmeko. The soldiers of several countries mainly practised their cooperation in combat operations. According to Zmeko, the scenario of the exercise was also based on elements of Slovakia's defence with a counterattack to preserve the integrity of the country.
The objectives of the exercise were also fulfilled according to deputy commander for operations of the Czech Army Petr Prochazka. "During the exercise, we mainly focused on checking the tactical abilities of the units," he pointed out. "The primary goal was to harmonise all training units and the command system," he added.
Source: TASR
