Servicemen shared their combat experience on the occasion of Heroes of the Fatherland Day

On Monday, December 9, Russia celebrates Heroes of the Fatherland Day. On this occasion, servicemen participating in a special military operation (SMO) shared stories from the front.

Maxim Potashev, the commander of the platoon of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), Hero of the Russian Federation, shared that he has been serving in the Armed Forces for 10 years, he started his way in the tank forces, where he received the nickname "Zadira" because of his stroppy character. The soldier got acquainted with the sphere of drones in Kharkov, where he went by tank in the first days of the SSO.

"I have a large number of combat feats. Very large, you can say that they can not even count them. Somehow they came, I was awarded, there was an award, they shook hands. I was there [saying]: "I serve Russia" - and immediately went to the front," he shared.

According to comrades, Potashev mostly lives in the trenches. His rear dugout has a sleeping bag, change of clothes, and a trophy American M-4 assault rifle, which was wrested from foreign mercenaries near Perviy Liman in Kharkiv Oblast. Potashev said that "a lot of trophies" were taken from Georgian and Polish mercenaries.

Deputy platoon commander, Hero of the Russian Federation Alexei Khimenko shared that he stood up for the defense of his native Lugansk region as a schoolboy, and in 2022 he already continued to fight in the ranks of the Russian army.

He named the storming of the school in Bakhmutskoye settlement in Soledar city, where Georgian mercenaries were standing, as the main memory of his front life. According to him, the enemy launched a counterattack with the use of equipment. The soldier shared that he took the fight against a group of militants alone.

"Worked on them. BMP (infantry fighting vehicle. - Ed.) stopped, after which I finished the infantry with a machine gun, well the breakthrough stopped. The guns were transferred to me and started to work on me. About eight pieces of shrapnel in each arm went in," Khimenko added.

However, wounded, he continued to coordinate the unit. As a result, the school was liberated, and then the army liberated the entire Soledar. Khimenko received the Star of the Hero of Russia for this feat.

December 9 Heroes of the Fatherland Day: to whom the holiday is dedicated and how it is celebrated in Russia

Earlier in the day, the commander of the assault unit, Guards Major, Hero of Russia Vladimir Teslo told Izvestia about the work of the assault troops in the Donetsk People's Republic. In total, the assault detachment under the command of Guards Major Teslo destroyed up to 650 enemy soldiers, 27 units of military equipment. He received the title of Hero of Russia on February 5, 2024 for bravery and courage in the performance of military duty.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the backdrop of the worsening situation in the region.