Lukashenko presented awards to families of the fallen heroes
Aleksandr Lukashenko presented the Hero of Belarus medals and the Order for Personal Gallantry to the families of the fallen officers. The relatives of the pilots Andrei Nichiporchik and Nikita Kukonenko and the officer of the Alpha group of the State Security Committee (KGB), Dmitry Fedosyuk, were invited to the event.
Addressing the families of the victims, the President underlined, “This is an incredible ceremony. To be honest, it’s very difficult for me to say something. I thought about it. All good things have already been said. Good people wished all that they could. But recently I have been thinking more and more often (maybe, because I pay a lot of attention to this) that a lot of real patriots of our country are leaving us.”
The Head of State recalled the Artistic Director of the National Academic Concert Orchestra, People’s Artist of Belarus, Mikhail Finberg, who recently passed away, “A man who was full of plans, some aspirations, wishes. They say that he could still live. I don’t know, probably,” noted the President.
Aleksandr Lukashenko also recalled the former Prime Minister of Belarus Vyacheslav Kebich, who passed away a year ago.
The President noted that the fallen heroes who performed the feat in peacetime differ from the people he mentioned in that they were still very young.
“Those people have already lived a certain life, did a lot and left their mark in the history of our state,” said the Belarusian leader. “Your guys, having lived a very short life, have left the brightest trace in the history of our country, our state. Thank you for your sons, for your close and dear people! Our task is to do everything, our duty is to ensure that people and the state remember them. Believe me, it will be so.”
The Head of State also added, “I have invited you to this incredible ceremony, exceptional in my life, in order to present the state awards bestowed upon your loved ones for performing a heroic deed.”
The medals of the Hero of Belarus were presented to the relatives of Andrei Nichiporchik and Nikita Kukonenko, the flight commander and the pilot of the combat aviation training unit of the combat aviation training squadron of the 116th Guards Assault Aviation Base of the Air Force and Air Defence Forces of the Armed Forces. They were posthumously awarded this high title for courage and heroism displayed during the performance of military duty.
During the training flight near Baranovichi on May 19th, a Yak-130 military aircraft from the Lida assault airbase crashed. A little more than a minute passed from the moment of the emergency to the crash of the plane. Under these conditions, with incredible efforts at an altitude of about 50m, the crew managed to stabilise the direction of flight and direct the Yak-130 to the single point that was outside the residential buildings.
Today, at the Palace of Independence, the Head of State presented the Order for Personal Gallantry, which was posthumously awarded to senior lieutenant Dmitry Fedosyuk – a KGB officer. He died on September 28th during the special events conducted in Minsk to work out addresses where people — involved in terrorist activities — could be located. In one of the apartments of a residential building, a particularly dangerous criminal opened fire with a gun to kill law enforcement officers. As a result, the KGB officer was mortally wounded.
“When the guys entered, as I was told, Dima was ahead of the others. He was actually covering the team by being the first to run into the apartment. The guys saw a person with a gun, just several seconds, and as usual they shouted: ‘Weapons on the floor!’ Instead, this scumbag shot at Dmitry, hitting him right in the heart. And as Dmitry was dying, he shot twice to kill his murderer (he couldn’t fire the third time),” the President of Belarus told the details of the incident earlier.
