RF commemorates warriors-internationalists fallen in Afghanistan.

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15/2 Tass 246

MOSCOW, February 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia marks the Commemoration Day
of Warriors-Internationalists, as the withdrawal of the contingent of the
Soviet troops from Afghanistan was completed 21 years ago. About 15,000
Soviet servicemen and at least 100,000 Afghan citizens fell victim of an
about ten-year undeclared war. Dozens of thousands of people remained
disabled.

More than half a million soldiers and officers passed through the
hardships of the war in Afghanistan.
The Omsk region commemorates the fallen servicemen and honors living
veterans in the regional center and in many rural districts. The
Commemoration Day was opened with a rally, the laying of wreaths and fresh
flowers to the Memorial to Omsk residents killed in local wars. Taking
part in the rally were relatives and friends, comrades-in-arms of fallen
Afghan warriors, members of the regional government, representatives of
public organizations, as well as servicemen and cadets and the 242nd
training center of the Airborne Troops and the Omsk cadet corps stationed
outside Omsk.
More than 3,700 Omsk residents participated in the hostilities in
Afghanistan from 1979 through 1989. A third of them were awarded with
government medals, 117 servicemen died heroically. Currently the warriors
of Afghan and two Chechen wars are a separate social group of war
veterans, who enjoy corresponding benefits in buying and repairing their
flats, recuperation courses and pension security.
At the schools, where the heroic warriors-internationalists studied,
memorial plaques are unveiled. The names of all fallen warriors are
immortalized at the St. Nicholas the Miracle-worker Cossack Cathedral. The
all-Russian hand-to-hand fighting is held in the Omsk region every year in
commemoration of an Afghan warrior and the Hero of the Soviet Union,
Nikolai Chepik.
The residents of the Hero City of Murmansk held a rally at the
Memorial to the Warriors-Internationalists on Monday. Not only former
Afghan warriors, but also the veterans of the Great Patriotic War and
representatives of youth organizations came to pay the tribute to their
fallen country fellows.
"The past years did not lose the value of valour and selflessness of
the Northerners, who performed decently their international duty,"
Murmansk Mayor Sergei Subbotin said opening the rally. "Their feats set an
example of service to the Motherland, and the memory about them will live
forever in the hearts of current and future generations of Murmansk
residents," he said.
The wreaths and fresh flowers were laid to the monument. The gun
salute was fired. Scarlet carnations were laid on the tombs of Afghan
warriors, who died of wounds and were buried on the Kola soil.
Meanwhile, the program of the Commemoration Day of
Warriors-Internationalists in Moscow envisages the laying of wreaths and
flowers to the Monument to the Warriors-Internationalists on the
Poklonnaya Hill, to the tombs at the Novodevichye cemetery and other
places connected with the memory about Soviet fallen warriors.
Afghan war veterans, a squadron of the Guard of Honor, senior
officials of the St. Petersburg authorities, the Legislative Assembly of
St. Petersburg and the Leningrad military district will attend a rally at
the Memorial in the Slava Avenue in St. Petersburg.
About 5,000 Afghan war veterans live in the Russian northern capital.
According to the tradition of this day they attend the memorials and tombs
of fallen servicemen. The major common tomb is situated at the
Serafimovskoye cemetery, where about 300 warriors were laid to rest. After
a remembrance service at the St. Serafim of Sarov Church a rally will be
held on the Alley of Glory.
In Tuva the fallen warriors-internationalists were commemorated
according to the tradition on Monday morning at the monument situated on
the premises of Kyzyl school No 12. Since 1989 the school students have
meetings with the parents and relatives of the killed servicemen, as well
as with survived warriors-internationalists. The photos, documents and
belongings of 12 fallen soldiers, who did the military duty in Afghanistan
from Tuva, are deposited at the museum of combat glory at the school.
Some 285 warriors-internationalists were awarded with state medals in
the republic, 414 servicemen from Tuva participated in the Afghan war, the
Tuva government press service said.
The city of Military Glory Oryol also hosts the events dedicated to
the 21st anniversary of the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from
Afghanistan. At the initiative of the United Russia Party a monument is
under construction for the warriors-internationalists and all Oryol
residents, who participated in local wars and armed conflicts. It is
symbolic that this monument will be unveiled in the year of the 65th
anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
More than 2,000 residents of the Oryol region participated in the
hostilities in Afghanistan, 61 of them died courageously. Over 400
servicemen were awarded with combat orders and medals, many of them
returned home with grave injuries.
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