After an hour of communication with this person, all questions about why he has such a call sign — Predator disappear. Dmitry from the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet destroyed five enemy aircraft and two helicopters, participated in the liberation of Mariupol and led an assault group into the village of Novomikhailovka.
Why did he decide to link his life with military service and for which he was awarded four Orders of Courage? The answers are in the material of Dmitry Kornev, senior permanent correspondent of the RIC Krasnaya Zvezda of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
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“We shot down five Ukrainian Su-25s, and then we also took down the Mi-24.”
For this, the commander of the MANPADS platoon from the Donetsk direction was awarded the Order of Courage four times.
After an hour of communication with this person, all questions about why he has such a call sign — Predator disappear. Dmitry from the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet destroyed five enemy aircraft and two helicopters, participated in the liberation of Mariupol and led an assault group into the village of Novomikhailovka (DPR). Why he decided to link his life with military service, how he reacted to the first shelling and for what he was awarded, is described in the Izvestia article.
I didn’t want to be a pilot.
Dmitry was born almost thirty years ago in one of the villages of Primorsky Krai, in the family of a serviceman — his grandfather and great-grandfather also served the Fatherland.
His military career began with entering the cadet class after graduating from the age of eight.
— The educational institution was located in the city of Nakhodka. It’s 47 km from ours. I had to take this bus route back and forth every day for several years,” Dmitry shared his childhood memories.
After the cadet class, he entered the civil aviation School located in the city of Sasovo in the Ryazan region. His father dreamed that the boy would follow in his footsteps and become a pilot, though not a military one, but a civilian one.
After studying for a year, Dmitry realized that this was not his “soul is not lying.” As a result, he took the documents and transferred to the Far Eastern Higher Combined Arms Command School.
After graduation, he was assigned to the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade of the Pacific Fleet.
The beginning of the SVO and the first shelling
In March 2022, Dmitry was appointed platoon commander of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) and sent to the combat zone in the Kiev direction.
According to the officer, when he arrived at the location of the airborne assault battalion, his platoon was tasked with covering our units from the air.
At the same time, on his first day on the contact line, Dmitry and his personnel came under mortar fire.
— I remember when we were having lunch with the soldiers, we heard the whistle of mines. My friends threw down their plates, and I just followed their example because they were more experienced than me. But I tried not to get emotional. Although the pulse rate, of course, increased significantly, the adrenaline jumped. And that was enough for me to quickly understand what was going on and where I had arrived,” Dmitry said.
He admitted that at that time he practically did not understand what MANPADS were.
— I’ve never even fired them. I had to learn everything on the go. I remember an enemy reconnaissance drone flew into our position and the sergeant of my platoon with the call sign Mowgli showed me a real example of how to capture a target and shoot, destroying this “bird,” the officer explained
The atrocities of the nationalists
According to him, it didn’t take long to fight in the Kiev direction. Just a week later, the unit was transferred to Yuzhnodonetsky.
— I took my first fight in Mariupol. We were carrying out tasks to clean up one of the districts of the city. There I met with those fierce nationalists from the Azov and Aidar battalions (recognized as terrorist organizations in Russia and banned). The animals are the most natural,” Dmitry emphasized.
In a conversation with Izvestia, he recalled one episode that still gives him goosebumps.
— We were in the area of the city hospital. They got a foothold in one of the apartment buildings there. There were two more five-storey buildings opposite us. The enemy was sitting in them. At some point, a woman with a child ran out of the basement of one of these houses. Small, about five years old, no older. She ran towards us, waving her hand at the same time to avoid being shot at. When we saw her, we started shouting, they say, come quickly to us. And the nationalists shot her in the back. The woman fell to the ground. The child apparently ran forward by inertia. Then he stopped and turned around, walked up to her. He stood there and didn’t know what to do. The Nazis shot him in the head,” he shared emotionally.
The First Order
He received his first military award, the Order of Courage, for destroying an enemy Mi-8 helicopter.
— It was in the Ugledar direction in September 2022. Then, together with his subordinate, they were at the location of the airborne assault battalion, providing air cover for the unit. There was information that aviation equipment was seen at the Coal mine. We moved into position. It was a dilapidated building. It’s a pretty good place to attack,” Dmitry remarks, clarifying that he had to wait for the target for more than three days.
On the fourth day, according to him, a helicopter appeared.
— My subordinate saw him before me. But due to the fact that he chose the wrong position, he could not fire a shot. He signaled to me that he could see the chopper and indicated the direction. I grabbed the rocket, captured the target, and fired. The weather was low-cloud that day. That’s why I saw my rocket go into the clouds, and the helicopter fly on. But after a short time, my “Needle” appears from the clouds and dives directly into the engine of the car. After that, I watched a burning helicopter fall into the city center, hitting one of the houses,” the Predator said.
The battle for Novomikhailovka
— At the beginning of February last year, I led an assault group into the village of Novomikhailovka (DPR). Of all the brigade units, we were the first to move there. The enemy’s defense in this village was serious. Since 2022, our troops have not even been able to get close to it. And our column, consisting of two tanks, two MTB and one BMP-3, was fired upon before reaching the point where we were supposed to land,” recalls Dmitry heavy battle.
According to him, the first tank was stopped by an FPV drone, and artillery fire was already being conducted on other vehicles.
— The second tank hit a mine. When he saw this picture, he ordered his subordinates to dismount. At that time, I had 15 personnel. We ran forward to the enemy’s position through a minefield under artillery and mortar fire. There was nowhere to hide. About three hundred meters before the front line of the enemy’s defenses, small arms fire was opened at us, specifically from machine guns, from two positions,” the Predator recalls.
However, everyone reached the enemy’s positions.
— We broke into the line of trenches and captured three of their fighters. After that, they began to clear the trenches. Then we gained a foothold in the position. All this is under constant enemy fire. According to the original plan, we were supposed to hold on for 30 minutes. Then the companies of the airborne assault battalion were supposed to approach us. Having stepped over us, they had to develop an offensive. But it didn’t work out that way. Due to the high density of the fire, help did not come to us immediately. Of course, we resisted. But in the second hour of the battle, all my personnel, including myself, were wounded,” Dmitry said, specifying that a shell exploded a meter away from him.
Then the officer broke both legs, his right arm and tore his eardrum. But he did not lose consciousness. I managed to get my leg hooked up and report to my commanding officer on the situation. Only then did it turn off. I woke up in the same place, looked around, got in touch. He continued to lead the defense of the outskirts of the village.
Treatment, rehabilitation, and training of personnel
And then there were several hospitals and more than one operation. Today, as military people say, he is already in a permanent deployment point in Vladivostok, where his parents, spouse and friends are.
He does not leave the service in parallel with medical procedures.
— I conduct classes with the staff. I pass on the experience to the younger generation. They’ll need it. I know,” the officer concluded our conversation.
For his exploits, Dmitry was awarded four orders of Courage and the medal “For Bravery”.
https://vk.com/@mil-my-sbili-pyat-ukrainskih-su-25-a-potom-esche-i-mi-24-zavalil
