Director General of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya Dmitry Kiselev has retold the story of Tank Major Ivan Dodosov whose bravery helped his comrades-in-arms break through the enemy's defense lines near the town of Popasnaya in the Lugansk People's Republic in May 2022.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova paid tribute to Alexander Potapov, an officer of the Russian Guard's Special Forces “Vityaz”, who gave his life in the summer 2022 to save two civilians during the shelling of the city of Izyum by Ukrainian nationalists. Potapov was posthumously awarded the Hero of Russia Gold Star by presidential decree.
Rossiya Segodnya media group Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, for her part, paid homage to the exploit of Russian Senior Lieutenant Nur-Magomed Gadzhi-Magomedov who sacrificed his life for the success of a combat mission in February 2022 .