President Vladimir Putin and Russian Patriarch Kirill congratulated Zakharova up to the military units in Ukraine, she was presented with orders and gifts.
At a ceremonial event in the Kremlin, Putin awarded Maria Zakharova with the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" IV degree and also presented her with his personal gifts.
Zakharova also gave the President a gift in the form of an essay in an envelope. She was born in 1975, graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1998, and has been working as the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2015.
