An infantry battalion commander in Russia’s Far East has died on Wednesday after he threw himself over a soldier to protect him from a grenade explosion, according the Eastern Military District officials.

      The incident took place on March 28, in Russia's Amur region, during grenade throwing exercises. By accident, one of the thrown grenades rebounded off the trench wall and fell near the crowd of soldiers. Sergey Solnechnikov, the battalion commander immediately reacted to the situation and covered the conscript soldier with his body.

      Some other newspapers say that Sergey covered the grenade with his body and so saved several soldiers. But this information is not proved yet. 

      The training exercises of that kind presuppose the use of both drill and service grenades and other militant ammunition. 

      The injured officer was taken to a military hospital in Belogorsk but died one and a half hours after. The soldier was injured and also taken to the hospital. Nobody else was hurt.

      The same incident took place in 2010, in Volgograd region, when the Russian Army captain died while protecting a soldier from the grenade explosion.

      Sergey Solnechnikov will probably be given one of the Russia's highest militant awards, posthumously. Details are still unknown, the respective orders should be signed today.

Sources: Lenta.ru RIA Novosti Image: metronews.ru