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Russian defense minister confers award on pilot, who landed a burning jet

"We are now choosing the best in 54 military jobs," the minister said during the award ceremony
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu Maxim Grigoryev/TASS
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu
© Maxim Grigoryev/TASS

MOSCOW, September 14. /TASS/. Russian Defense Minister Army Gen. Sergei Shoigu awarded victory in the "Courage and Honor" nomination of the Russian Army-2019 festival to a serviceman who saved a senior officer in Syria and a pilot who landed a burning jet.

"We are now choosing the best in 54 military jobs. Many of those people have had a serious combat experience before climbing to this stage," the minister said during the award ceremony.

"A great number of commanders and officers did their job faithfully and loyally, and keep doing their service under harshest possible circumstances. Their success can be clearly seen in areas, where peace has settled and international terrorists were defeated thanks to our servicemen’s efforts," Shoigu went on.

Maj. Alexander Morozov, an air squad commander of the Baltics Fleet’s air division, successfully landed a plane that caught fire in mid-air, saving the aircraft and avoiding casualties on the ground.

The commander of an engineering platoon of the Southern Military District’s military police, Capt. Alexander Feoktistov, was among servicemen guarding a humanitarian mine clearing battalion in Syria when its commander was injured in a landmine blast. Feoktistov assisted the man and ensured safe evacuation of other servicemen from the territory.