Group Captain Channa Dissanayake, Defence Attaché of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Moscow, was invited to the commemoration ceremony of the 30th Anniversary of withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, which ended on February 15, 1989, in keeping with the Geneva Accords, signed by representatives of the USSR, the US, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and the Republic of Afghanistan.

The event was held on February 16th and attended by over six thousand veterans of the Afghan war, their family members, and guests. Sri Lanka was the only foreign country apart from CIS and Slavic Brotherhood countries, which had the honour of being represented at this solemn ceremony.
After the ceremony, Group Captain Channa Dissanayake had the honour of meeting some distinguished and decorated veterans of the Soviet Army; among them was General Alexander Sergeevich Chubarov from the Special Operations Forces. He served in Afghanistan in the rank of Major and Lieutenant Colonel as an adviser to the Commander of the 466th Special Operations Regiment of Afghanistan Second Army Corps, and adviser to the Commander of the 38th Brigade of the 3rd Army Corps of Afghanistan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, General Chubarov played a key role in preventing the spread of radical Islamic groups, and their coming to power in the former Soviet Republics, bordering Afghanistan. During that time, he served as Deputy Minister of Defense of Tajikistan. For his successful military operations against the radical Islamic militants, he was nicknamed "Zhukov of Tajikistan".
Group Captain Dissanayake was also privileged to meet with a fellow Mi-24 pilot, Colonel Valery Petrovich Ryzhkov; a highly decorated aviator from the Soviet Army Aviation merited for his chivalry in Air Operations in Afghanistan.