Awards for those who did not return

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko awarded high state awards to soldiers who died defending the territorial integrity of Ukraine, reports the website of the Ministry of Defense. Among the honored were 14 members of the Armed Forces, 4 representatives of the Interior Ministry, and 2 border guards. The process of issuing the awards has been delayed until now due to the difficulties in identifying the bodies. Most of the awarded were the soldiers who had died near Ilovaisk. Additionally, there were those who had defended the Donetsk airport, as well as Pisky and Spartak villages in autumn 2014 and winter 2015. Two of them had been killed near the village of Mayorsk, Donetsk oblast, in August 2015.

Some of the recipients had been killed in action in Luhansk oblast. The award was also issued to Anton Maslii, chief officer of the State Border Service who had been killed by a mine while patrolling the waters near Mariupol in June 2015.