PSKOV, Russia, March 1 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at a memorial Friday for 84 soldiers killed in Chechnya March 1, 2000.
The memorial was for members of the 6th Company, based in Pskov, who died after they were cut off by retreating Chechen separatist fighters in the North Caucasus republic's Argun Gorge, RIA Novosti reported.
Only six paratroopers from the company survived the attack in the Second Chechen War.
"These soldiers from the 6th Company showed the whole world that it is impossible to defeat Russia, that at a critical moment its valiant sons will fight until the death for their motherland," Putin said at a meeting with relatives of the deceased in the western Russian city of Pskov.
Twenty-one members of the company received the Hero of Russia award posthumously. The remaining 63 were awarded the Order of Courage.
