Hundreds have gathered in Banja Luka and Sarajevo to mark Victory Day, which commemorates the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945.

Citizens organized a march in Banja Luka, sending a message of resistance to fascism.They were joined by several public and political figures of the Republika Srpska (RS) entity, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated sub-state.

Among them were RS President Milorad Dodik, RS Prime Minister Zeljka Cvijanovic, RS National Assembly Vice-President Nenad Stevandic and Petar Ivancov, the Russian Ambassador to Bosnia.

The crowd was mainly composed of people who fought the Nazi occupation during WWII and their descendants. They laid flowers at local anti-fascist monuments to commemorate fallen anti-fascists.

In Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo, some 300 people gathered for the second anti-fascist march, organized by the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP), together with the Union of Antifascists and veterans of the People's Liberation War of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The crowd sang Partisan songs and also laid flowers at the ‘Vjecna vatra’ (Eternal Fire) monument, as well as at the Sarajevo Memorial for Children Killed During the 1992-95 Siege.