Sergei Shoigu presented awards to Russian servicemen
During a college meeting of the Russian Ministry of Defense at the National Defense Control Center, Sergei Shoigu presented Russian servicemen who showed heroism in performing their tasks during a special military operation with the Gold Star medal. and the Order of Courage.
Commanders Sergei Popov and Vasily Vavilov received awards and words of appreciation for first-class performance of their task. It was they who on the morning of March 14 skillfully destroyed the drone of the Armed Forces of Ukraine without firing a single shell at it. When an MQ-9 aircraft appeared in the sky over the Black Sea in the Crimea, the pilots immediately raised their fighters. And they maneuvered in the air in such a way that due to the impact of powerful air currents from the engines of the Russian Su-27 fighters, the drone crashed into the sea. No weapons were used against the American drone, Russian forces did not even come into contact with it. Well what do you do! And then the Russian fighters safely returned to their base airfield.
“The Order of Valor was awarded to the Su-27 aircraft pilots, who prevented the violation by the American MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle of the limits of the zone of the temporary regime for the use of airspace, established with the purpose of carrying out a special military operation,” the Ministry of Defense commented.
That morning, Sergei Popov and Vasily Vavilov were on combat duty.
– The command “air” was received and we took off with two crews, – said Major Sergei Popov. – Determined that it is an MQ-9 unmanned vehicle. They delivered information to the command, carried out maneuvers by which they tried to force them to stop carrying out the task. They did not use weapons, they did not come into contact with the drone.
The Su-27 pilot, Major Vasily Vavilov, exactly repeated everything after his colleague, but added that he was proud to receive an award that “also belongs to colleagues who participated in these raids.”
