“I see this as a sign of respect for a real man, a patriot who loved his Motherland and honestly fulfilled his duty as a military man and a citizen,” said Oleg Peshkov’s onetime commander Colonel Yuri Gritsaenko, who will be piloting the newly dedicated Su-34.
On Thursday Oleg Peshkov’s widow was handed her late husband’s award weapon and the Order of Dedication posthumously bestowed upon him by the Syrian government.
17 August 2016, 09:00 GMT
On November 24 a Su-24 bomber on an antiterrorist mission in Syria was shot down by a Turkish F-16 fighter jet.
Both pilots managed to bail out but the plane’s commander, Oleg Peshkov, was killed from the ground by militants as he descended on a parachute.
Navigator Konstantin Murakhtin survived the descent and was later saved by a rescue team.
Oleg Peshkov was posthumously awarded the Gold Star of Hero of the Russian Federation.
