MOSCOW, June 20. /ITAR-TASS/. Posthumous awards of Orders of Courage have been announced for the two Russian journalists who died from military bombardment while on assignment in eastern Ukraine.

State honors were announced for public broadcaster VGTRK professionals Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin at Kornelyuk's farewell ceremony.

“The president signed a decree on awarding them with Orders of Courage. We shall remember them always, as it cannot be otherwise,” said Alexei Gromov, presidential administration first deputy head.

“Hundreds of Russian journalists are working in Ukraine, risking their lives,” Gromov said. “Nobody has left or wants to leave that country because they are carrying out the important mission of telling the truth. By doing so, they are saving hundreds and thousands of lives.”

Reporter Kornelyuk, sound engineer Voloshin and cameraman Viktor Denisov were caught under mortar fire near Luhansk when filming self-defense forces helping local residents leave an area of military hostilities. Denisov survived the June 17 attack.