BELGRADE, February 21. /TASS/. The valor of Russian Major Roman Filipov, who died in Syria, has amazed Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday at a news conference held with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after their talks.

"I have written a letter on behalf of the Serbian people to the family of Russian officer Roman Filipov, to his wife Olga Sergeevna Filipova. I have asked Sergei Lavrov to hand the letter over to the Russian pilot Filipov’s family," Vucic said.

"I wrote that Major Filipov’s valor had fascinated Serbia," he said. "I ended that letter with words that appeared in Serbia during heroic times: there is no crying over heroes, they are survived but what they have done."

On February 3, Maj. Filipov’s Sukhoi-25 fighter jet was downed from a shoulder-carried anti-aircraft missile launcher over the Idlib de-escalation zone in Syria. He managed to catapult but on the ground he found himself entangled in an unequal battle with terrorists, who encircled him.

Unable to break out of the encirclement, Maj. Filipov blew himself up with a hand grenade.