War Veterans´ Day observed

The War Veterans Day was celebrated in the country on Thursday commemorating the sacrifice of the war veterans.

The main event held at the Lahti Sports and Trade Fair Centre where the guests of honour are some war veterans. There are currently 17,000 living veterans in the country.

President Sauli Niinistö presented the keynote paper on the occasion in Lahti.

Earlier, in 2015, the president office issued an Order of the Day in honour of war veterans and the Finnish women's voluntary auxiliary paramilitary organization, Lotta.

This is the first such official order given in 20 years.

Niinistö recalled the sacrifices made during the years of war and thanked the veterans and the Lotta.

The previous Order of the Day was given in 1995, in commemoration of 50 years since the end of the war.

National veterans' day is a remembrance day for all the war veterans in Finland. The day is being celebrated every year since 1987 as the cabinet declared 27th April as the national veterans' day.

On 27th April, 1945, the very last German troops had left Finland and crossed the German occupied Norwegian border in the municipality of Enontekiö and the Finnish defence forces achieved the three-country border of German occupied Norway, neutral Sweden and Finland.

The Finns, on their behalf, at the request of the Allied Moscow Armistice controlling committee, attacked the Germans in Tornio, which was the end of the war and the beginning of the real war of Lapland.