Although even the largest platform for accommodation for visitors warns that the situation in the area poses an increased security risk, the city of Uzhhorod is one of the cities in Ukraine where Russian missiles have not yet fallen. Locals also assured us that alarms are not common here. We ask if they recommend that we download at least an application to our mobile phone connected to the air defense system, which warns people when an air raid alarm sounds."You don't need it," is the answer.

What will they discuss?

On the eve of the announced meeting between Fico and Zelensky, it didn't look like an important meeting on the streets of Uzhhorod. And not even on the National Square in front of the building that was being touted as one of the possible places for their meeting. Two police cars were probing in front of the building of the Zakarpattia Oblast Regional Council on Thursday evening, there were no patrols or fences set up there. The atmosphere of the upcoming meeting after our arrival in the city was only indicated by a police helicopter flying over a residential area.

Where Fico and Zelensky will meet on Friday is under embargo for security reasons. Only the general points of their discussion are known. According to the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic, one of the main topics will be energy infrastructure.

"The Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic and the President of Ukraine will inform about the conclusions of the meeting at a joint press conference," the press department announced.

The convoy was accompanied by a helicopter

While Fico will move to Ukraine from Košice, where he flew in from the celebrations of the end of World War II in Beijing, China, Zelensky's plane from Paris, where he negotiated with the leaders of the Coalition of the Willing, landed at an airport in eastern Slovakia before ten o'clock in the evening.

As the regional correspondent of Pravda found out, the convoy with President Zelensky in Košice from the airport did not head to the highway via Sečovská cesta. It took a slight detour and joined the highway near Budimír. The entire time, it was monitored from the air by a helicopter of the Ministry of the Interior. According to Flight Radar, the helicopter accompanied the convoy with President Zelensky all the way to the border crossing in Vyšný Nemecký.

Several hours before President Zelensky's arrival, plainclothes police officers were guarding the airport access road. Police cars with beacons were also stationed on Opatovská Road and the Sečovská-Prešovská intersection.

The Smer leader is said to be carrying a message from Putin to the Ukrainian president. The countries present at the summit in France agreed that they are ready to provide security guarantees for post-war Ukraine. In addition to Zelensky, the prime minister will also meet with the Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in Ukraine before the weekend. Slovakia will be represented in Uzhhorod by Economy Minister Denisa Saková (Hlas) and Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár (Smer).

All his friends died.

Mikhail (45), whom we caught up with early in the evening on a bike path on the Uh River embankment, told us that he is not interested in politics, not even in Zelensky's meeting with Fico, who only a few days ago held talks with Putin."It's all a show," he said briefly. He thinks that what will happen in Ukraine is already"written" and the truth will be known 50 years later. He is also skeptical of the US. He claims that America wants to cause problems in Europe through Ukrainians."They are succeeding at that," he continued.

In Uzhhorod, however, life is peaceful, according to him. Even though Russian missiles are not landing here, the war has still affected their city. Compared to the period before the war, the number of its inhabitants has doubled."So far, things are good here. Many people have come to live here since the beginning of the invasion. There was no such money here as there is today. If there were no war, no one would invest here," he stated. According to him, the change can also be felt in the workplace. On the other hand, just like in Slovakia, we also meet homeless people here.

According to Mikhail, the war is terrible, and even those who believed the hoax that it was just a stage show have changed their opinion about it."All my friends are dead. Two years ago, a year ago. They want to clean up the country as much as possible," he says of the Russians.

No curfew

Uzhhorod, which is located in close proximity to the Slovak border and is less than a hundred kilometers away from the eastern Slovak metropolis, is one of the cities that has not introduced a night curfew. We saw this in the streets this evening. Even though the fight for every square kilometer of territory continues just a few hundred kilometers away, the center was more like a holiday destination. Finding an empty table on the terraces of businesses near the Pedestrian Bridge was sometimes a problem.

Mikhail also mentions that local prices have increased since the invasion. However, for a Slovak, they are lower than he is used to. Juraj, whom we met in a restaurant on the waterfront, was pleased with the low price of a steak."I paid less than ten euros for a steak with potatoes here. A pizza on the menu costs about seven euros, a double cheeseburger with fries less than eight euros. Langos with cheese and garlic about 3.20 euros," he said.

A noticeably different atmosphere reigned at the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. In the darkness opposite it, above bouquets and candles, we found a wall full of photographs of murdered Ukrainian soldiers. The youngest of them, among about two hundred, was only twenty-two years old.

The losses are also commemorated by citylights with photographs of the dead in public spaces, we passed one with a large sign in Ukrainian saying I love Uzhhorod. Although neither Russia nor Ukraine provide official statistics on military losses, according to The Wall Street Journal, Russia's war against Ukraine has already claimed an estimated one million dead and wounded.