Lugansk People’s Republic Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik has posthumously awarded a medal of valor to Serbian volunteer Stefan Dimitrijevic who served with LPR People’s Militia.
Dimitrijevic was killed in the Novotoshkovksoye township area on April 4. LPR leader’s aide Yan Leschenko handed in the medal to Alchevsk resident Kristina, the widow of the fallen fighter.
“The brotherly Serbian people has been taking an active part in the liberation of our Republic since 2014,” Leschenko said. “Your husband gave his life fighting for Checkpoint 29. It was a heavily fortified area; we made persistent attempts to take it for a long time; the enemy was literary filled up with concrete. I only want to tell one thing: your husband is a hero. Taking Checkpoint 29 enabled us to faster drive out the enemy from our land.”
LPR ombudsperson Viktoria Serdyukova said that the family of the fallen volunteer was getting all necessary support.
“I’d like to note that we’ve had ties with the Serbian people not just for long years but centuries.<...> Such close ties are explained by one religion and common traditions. Of course, these ties are easily seen. The participation of the Serbian people in the special military operation in Ukraine and Donbass is another proof to it," she said.
The widow of the serviceman said that he had stood up for Donbass in 2014. Later on, he returned to Serbia but in 2019 he rejoined the LPR militia. Their relationship began to develop around that time.
“After all, Serbia and Russia are one people. We all know how Serbia loves Russia. Of course, my husband decided to stand up for our Donbass and defend our people. He was a very kind and sympathetic man. Nobody ever said a bad word about Stefan. He really tried to help everybody. “How can I leave the guys on the frontline?” said he when I last saw him. He stayed with them till the end, he felt for everybody who got wounded,” Kristina said.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. On July 3, the LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.*i*v
