“One of the leading factors of motivation and morale of the people fighting at the front is the availability of fast and reliable medical evacuation, as well as of effective and adequate medical assistance and its provision in the immediate vicinity of the fighting,” said President Rumen Radeev in his address to this year’s class of cadets graduating “Medical services for the armed forces” from the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy.

At a ceremony at the Military Medical Academy, at which the cadets received their first officer’s ranks, the president said: “No one could have imagined, seven years ago, when the European security architecture looked unshakable, that a full-blown war would be raging and that thousands of people would be killed every day.” The higher educational establishments demonstrated foresight when they set up a specialty enhancing the medical service capabilities of the armed forces, the president said.

“What you will be providing is more than medical assistance, you will be inspiring confidence during the greatest of trials,” Rumen Radev said, addressing the new army doctors.