The Milic brothers, who died in Kosovo in 1999, were posthumously awarded the Veterans Memorial

Today in Kraljevo, the Veterans Memorials for the brothers Milic, Srdjan, and Boban, twins who died in Kosovo in 1999, during the NATO aggression, were solemnly presented.

The first Veterans’ Memorials, which are awarded in Serbia after eight decades as a sign of the state's respect and gratitude to the brave fighters who defended their homeland and people in the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, were received by their mother Nada Nadi Milic, who today lives in Kraljevo.

The Memorials were presented by the Vice-President of the Government of Serbia and the Minister of Defense Milos Vucevic and the Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Policy Nikola Selakovic.

Vucevic said that today both Srdjan and Boban, officers of our army, as well as their older brother Goran and father Dragoljub, were in the same place where those who had lived their lives virtuously and honestly, who carried their cross on their Golgotha as our Lord had done it.

"They have their place in the kingdom of heaven where there is neither sorrow nor pain and where like the angels of heaven they stand with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit - in the heavenly settlements. Their pious souls are with us today. All four of them are in every sunrise and sunset, in starry nights, in the smell of hay and the murmur of the rivers of Serbia. In our souls and eternity. And their life and suffering through the prism of our Christian faith give us perhaps the strongest answer to the key question about the meaning of life," Vucevic said on Instagram.

Addressing the audience in Kraljevo, Vucevic said that the Milic family had lived their lives grounded in our faith and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Novosti reports.

"A life filled with love for family, neighbors, its people and homeland, and all other people. And just as the cup of suffering did not pass Jesus by, so neither did the Milic borthers. Just as he overcame death with his suffering, love, and faith, so did they shine in eternity and stand in the heavenly troops of Serbia as our prayer men before God," Vucevic stressed.

He adds that we must never forget their love and sacrifice.

"Brother's love for a brother, father's and mother's love for their sons and love for their homeland. That's why history should be written, let it enter the textbooks, and let it be known that this country has angels in the sky, heroes, falcons, martyrs and sufferers, sons of Serbia who took over our sins with their innocent blood, for the sake of our freedom and the free mother of Serbia," Vucevic said.

Minister Selakovic asked why the Milic brothers could not escape their fate like the river Sitnica from their homeland Vucitrn could wriggle out of the old stone bridge of Vojinovic from the 14th century, and could they not also change the course of history, as Sitnica changed its course.

"And what should we do after everything, after such a sacrifice? What can the state of Serbia do and what is it obligated to do for this mother of Jugovic of the 20th century? It can, after all! If mother Nada can do it, each one of us can do it. The sons died defending the homeland they cherished, believing that it is worth giving one's life for. There was love, there was faith, here is hope between us today," Selakovic said.

As he added, Serbia could remember and to look back on, it could say that Srdjan and Boban and their older brother Goran were its brothers.

"Serbia can talk about its brothers because only a country that remembers its heroes, only a Serbia that remembers its heroes and martyrs is a Serbia that has a future. The Milic brothers could not change the course of their destiny, they could not build their home on someone else's hearth, they could not have loved their homeland more, and they could not have made a greater sacrifice for its freedom than they did. That is why it is the duty of each of us to remember and be eternally grateful. Just as it is written on these Memorials - 'Grateful homeland '", Selakovic said.

The ceremonial academy in the Hall of the Kraljevac City Assembly was attended by the mayor of the town on the Ibro, Predrag Terzic, representatives of the army, police, war veterans, family members of brave fighters, and numerous guests.

Nada Milic and her now-deceased husband Dragoljub lost their twins, Srdjan and Boban, twenty-six-year-old officers of the then Army of Yugoslavia, who honorably gave their lives defending their homeland against NATO aggressors and KLA terrorists in just ten days of April in 1999.

In the spring of 1999, Srdjan, second lieutenant of the Army of Yugoslavia, was killed by a land mine not far from Srbica in Kosovo and Metohija. With serious injuries, he was first transferred to the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica, and then to the Belgrade Military Medical Academy, where he died on April 4.

His twin Boban, lieutenant of the Army Of Yugoslavia, who, despite the tragic loss of his brother, returned to his military unit in Kosovo and Metohija, only ten days later was killed in the town of Volujak near Djakovica when two NATO missiles hit the armored vehicle he was in.

Their mother Nada Milic said that it was important to speak, to talk, to write, not to forget those children, not only her sons, but all our heroes who honorably defended their country, their ancestors, their hearths, their own kinsmen, and people.

"The time has come to correct the mistakes of the past and I want to thank everyone who honored Srdjan and Boban with a Memorial and made them eternal," Nada Milic said, receiving the Memorials of her sons.

After the end of the NATO aggression, the Milic family moved from Pristina to Kraljevo with their eldest son Goran.

Goran also died there, in the spring of 2000, out of immense grief for his tragically injured brothers.

He was buried in the same tomb near Srdjan and Boban at the new Kraljevo cemetery.

Ten years later, father Dragoljub joined them in the kingdom of heaven.

"I'm sorry that my late husband didn't live to see these Memorials," Nada added emotionally, stating that his "pain and sorrow-tortured heart" would be brimming.