Members of the special-operations unit Zubr of the Belarusian Emergencies Ministry have been awarded Medals for Excellence in the Prevention and Mitigation of Emergencies in recognition of their skillful, enterprising, and bold actions in the course of disaster response and other kinds of emergency work. Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed relevant decree No.218 on 19 July, BelTA has learned.

The medals went to the unit's commanding officer Igor Zarembo and his second-in-command Andrei Metelsky, section commander with the search and rescue work and firefighting center Anatoly Ivanchikov, watch commander of the operations control center Aleksandr Kurochkin, and watch officers of the operations control center Dmitry Melnik, Yevgeny Vysotsky, and Sergei Novichuk.

As a part of a search and rescue team members of the Zubr unit participated in disaster response work to help alleviate consequences of an earthquake in the Turkish city of Kahramanmaras on 8-15 February.

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