Marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, President Andrej Kiska met war veterans at the Presidential Palace on Thursday. Fourteen attended the personal meeting, as most of the veterans are now over 90 years old, and many weren't able to come due to health reasons. In his speech Kiska praised the invited people for giving up their security and comfort, suppressing doubt and setting off to fight evil. He remarked that many of them had to face repression from the communist regime after the war.
On Friday the President paid a visit to the Central Military Cemetery of the Royal Romanian Army and Red Army in Zvolen (Banská Bystrica region). By lighting the Candles of Gratitude, the president paid his respects to the memory of the fallen Romanian and Soviet soldiers. Prime Minister Robert Fico praised President Andrej Kiska for his initiative to light Candles of Gratitude to heroes of WWII at memorial sites across the whole of Slovakia and asked people to join this initiative. Fico, however, considers it right to lay a wreath also at places where most victims fell: namely, the memorial of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow.
