Northwestern Slovakia and thus the Kysuce region were liberated as part of the Ostrava operation aimed at conquering industrial Silesia. The town itself was reached by Soviet troops on April 30, 1945, allegedly around 6:30. They advanced here from Radola after the fighting in Vadičovská dolina, where they gradually liberated Horný and Dolný Vadičov, Pažite and Radoľa from 26 April. The retreating German troops blew up a steel arch bridge from 1875. The detonation was so strong that a pressure wave dropped the boys watching the situation on the ground about 200 meters from the epicenter on the Radoľa side. However, there were also loss of life during the liberation of Kysucké Nové Mesto. On April 30, 45 year-old Adalbert Leutter was killed, and later, on May 5, 74-year-old Žofia Mindeková died. It is not clear whether she died as a result of injuries previously suffered, or became the victim of some combat „skirmish“ that took place even after the liberation. 4 „Red Army“ and 24 Germans fell.
