OREANDA-NEWS  Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with World War II veteran Ivan Lytkin and hugged him after the Victory Day Parade on Red Square, RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

After the parade, the president talked "on his feet" with 99-year-old war veteran Ivan Lytkin. After a short farewell conversation, Putin hugged the veteran.

Lytkin fought in the 1st Belorussian Front, was an artillery gunner, commander of the famous "forty-five", then got into intelligence. After the war, Lytkin remained in the ranks of the USSR Armed Forces, in 1954 he was sent to Algeria to mine the lands after the colonialists, and then served in the Baltic States, Chukotka, Africa and Cuba.