Today, on November 21, the acting head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, posthumously awarded the medal “For Courage” to a volunteer from Serbia, Stefan Dimitrievich, who served in the ranks of the People’s Militia of the LPR.
Stefan was born in 1989, and before leaving for the LPR, he lived in Zemun (Belgrade), InfoBalkan reports. Since 2014, he has been a volunteer in the army of the Lugansk People’s Republic, in which he was awarded for special military merits. He began his trip in 2014 in the “Prizrak” brigade, in an international unit where there were volunteers from different countries. He fought in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk.
“Since 2014, the French, Serbs, Poles, Slavs have been fighting for the truth. Unfortunately, someone like Stefan gave his life for this truth,” said Yan Leshchenko, Adviser to the Head of the LPR.
In 2015, in Serbia, Stefan met his beloved woman — Kristina. The widow of the serviceman said that he came to the defense of Donbass in 2014, returned to Serbia after a while, and in 2019 again joined the ranks of the defenders of the LPR. Their relationship began only in 2019, when Stefan returned from Serbia to the frontline positions of the LPR. His wife describes him as a “big kind man”— conflict-free and selfless.
The serviceman took his last fight on April 4 in the area of the urban-type settlement Novotoshkovskoye. Around 9 o’clock in the morning, he sent Kristina, as it turned out later, his last photo of his friend and him making tea. After that, Stefan went to perform a combat mission and never came back.
Dimitrievich died when the IFV, in which he was, came under enemy fire. He managed to get out of the burning car in which his comrades died, but later he died from injuries incompatible with life. The shelling was carried out at a too close range. A sapper, a family friend, told his wife about his death.
“I am grateful to those people who pulled him [Stefan] out, because I know that there are a lot of situations when bodies cannot be pulled out, there are positions where it is simply unrealistic. Especially since Stefan was of such a complexion – 191 cm tall and over 100 kg of weight – it’s very hard,” the widow said.
Remembering what he was like, they say that one of the last things he said was, “How can I leave my guys on the front line?” — he was all the time worried about his comrades in arms and was not going to give up. The Adviser to the Head of the LPR added that the very fact that Stefan stormed the 29th checkpoint already indicates that he is a hero, because his actions allowed to intensify the liberation of the LPR land.
“The fraternal Serbian people, since 2014, has been actively involved in the liberation of our Republic. Your husband gave his life for the 29th checkpoint,” the official addressed the widow. “It was a very difficult fortified area, we tried very long and hard to take it, there were the most serious fortifications. The enemy was literally flooded with concrete. The only thing I want to say is that your husband is a hero. And the capture of the 29th checkpoint allowed us to knock out the enemy from our land at a more intensive pace.”
The Commissioner for Human Rights in the LPR, Victoria Serdyukova, specified that the wife of the deceased volunteer is provided with all the necessary support. According to her, Kristina has already received the necessary payments from the state and is receiving assistance in obtaining her child a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, since the child was born on the territory of Serbia.
Ru-Main, 21.11.2022
