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- They noticed the difference: the fighters told why they received the "For Assault" badge
They noticed the difference: the fighters told why they received the "For Assault" badge
Soldiers taking part in a special military operation began to be awarded a new distinctive badge of the Russian Armed Forces — "For the Assault." It was established in May 2025 to celebrate the military participants in particularly dangerous and bloody attacks. Izvestia correspondents talked with the first owners of the distinctive signs and found out for what feats they received them.
The flamethrowers go first
Sergey, with the call sign Beard, is a flamethrower of the 1st Slavic Brigade of the 51st Donetsk Army of the Southern Military District. The badge "For the assault" was presented to him during the training of the Victory Day Parade. On May 9, he marched through Red Square as part of the parade squad of the participants of his military.
"I felt confused," he suddenly admits.
After a pause, he explains his feelings.
"At first, I didn't understand why I got this badge," he said. — Then I remembered the early days of the SVO, when such actions were not yet called "storming". At that moment, everyone was storming. Probably, in honor of this, they were awarded.
Sergey with the call sign Beard is a flamethrower of the 1st Slavic Brigade of the 51st Donetsk Army of the Southern Military District.
Sergey joined the DPR army in 2018: on May 10 he joined the 1st Slavic Brigade, and on May 18 he was already in the ranks. He met the beginning of a special military operation in the village of Petrovskoye — he advanced in armored vehicles to the first breakthrough.
Boroda took part in the storming of the former disengagement area on the Petrovskoye–Bogdanovka line in the DPR, where his brigade fought.
— As a separate flame-throwing unit, we were dispersed into battalions by strike groups, he recalls the first battles. — Each squad moved out separately, and then we converged on a certain line. And it came as a surprise to the enemy.
The shock fist of the brigade was tempered in those battles. The flamethrowers figured out communication, interaction, and learned how to work on the move.
Distinctive badge of the Russian Armed Forces "For Assault"
— Those were the days of the old guard, the moment when, after many years of positional confrontation, our troops went on the offensive. Many of them are no longer with us," says Sergey.
Then there were the battles of the first stage of the SVR to break into the Zaporizhia region and surround Mariupol, then the liberation of the territory of the LPR. Then there will be battles in the Avdiivka direction with the breakthrough of the enemy's first line of defense in 2022.
Sergey tells how he fought as a flamethrower as part of assault groups and fire support groups. The enemy has seriously prepared the defense.
According to him, in some fortified areas, in particular in the Avdiivka direction, the Ukrainian militants had prepared concrete shelters with pressure drop chambers to counteract hand-held flamethrowers.
— In the Avdiivka direction, I saw one of these fortifications, where the enemy had everything shot in the area of positions that were equipped even before the SVO. There I received my first wound in an unsuccessful assault. Then the guys gathered and were able to move on," says Sergey.
He himself hails from Avdiivka and was forced to leave his hometown in 2014. He personally participated in his release, and these were special days for him.
Tank onslaught
The tank commander with the call sign Dez from the 1st Slavic Brigade decides not to give his full name, although his jacket bears the Star of the Hero of the DPR and two Orders of Courage.
The habit of introducing himself by his call signs has been ingrained for years, and Des just smiles when you tell him that he has long been a public figure, awarded high state awards.
But he talks about the battles willingly.
"From the very beginning, we participated in the assault operations, and I was in many assaults," he says. — I got the hero of the DPR for participating in one of them. We used a tank with a minesweeper to make a passage for infantry to an important height near Novobakhmutovka. Artillery was actively working on us. We marched 150 meters to the enemy's position, and we were working from a cannon and a machine gun on the move. It was a serious fight. We lost the car, but we completed the task," says Dez. He was a driver at the time.
Tank commander with the call sign Dez from the 1st Slavic Brigade
The tankman already received the second Order of Courage for the capture of Avdiivka, when tanks most often worked from closed firing positions.
But even in those battles, there were episodes when heavy vehicles had to go to direct fire during assault operations.
But for what exactly he received the first "Man", as they call the Order of Courage at the front, Dez never remembered. He says that the events of the active battles of 2022-2023 followed each other so quickly that it is difficult to name a specific episode.
Dez also received the badge "For the Assault" unexpectedly, before the Victory Day Parade.
He believes that this sign highlights those who were directly involved in the most brutal battles in fortified enemy positions.
Dez was part of the banner group at the Victory Day Parade.
— In 2019, he graduated from a technical college and, since the war has not ended since 2014, he decided to join the army. At that moment, I did not even think that I would have such an honor to walk through Red Square," he assures.
Dez says he felt proud.
— It made me cry when the stands started to rise. They did it three times at the parade — during the minute of silence, the anthem performance, and when our "boxes" passed by. It was my dream to walk through Red Square like this," says Sergey.
He is 25 years old and a sergeant, but he plans to attend officer training and become a platoon commander.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
