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Killed Russian Su-24 pilot buried at hometown

Xinhua, December 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Lt. Col. Oleg Peshkov, captain of the Russian Su-24 fighter jet downed by Turkey near the Syrian-Turkish border, was buried on Wednesday at his hometown of Lipetsk, some 450 km southeast of Moscow.

At a solemn ceremony attended by Russia's Aerospace Force Commander-In-Chief Col. Gen. Viktor Bondarev, a guard of honor lining up fired a salvo salute as the remains were lowered into the tomb.

Prior to the burial, around 10,000 Lipetsk dwellers, standing in long queues under a heavy snowfall, bade farewell to the pilot at the city's cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and later at the local culture center.

An F-16 fighter of the Turkish Air Force shot down the Russian Su-24 on Nov. 24 for allegedly violating Turkish airspace, while Russia insisted that the jet stayed over the Syrian territory during the whole flight.

The two crew members of the Su-24 jet managed to parachute themselves, but Peshkov was shot down by ground fire as he parachuted to ground in Syria, while the other one, Captain Konstantin Murakhtin, was rescued by Russian and Syrian forces and taken to the Hmeimim airbase in Syria, where a Russian airforce group for anti-terror campaign is located.

Peshkov's body was recovered by the Turkish authorities and handed over to the Russian side in Ankara, after which a warplane carried it to Russia on Monday.

Peshkov, who left a wife, a 16-year-old son and a 8-year-old daughter, was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation, the country's highest honorary title.

The Lipetsk city administration said on its website that it planned to name one of the city streets after the pilot.

Russia has slapped a set of sanction measures on Turkey in response to Ankara's refusal to make any apologies for the incident.

Currently, there are no signs of any rapid recuperation of the ties between the two countries. Endi