During the battle of Stalingrad, while flying La-5, Gnido shot down ten enemy aircraft, which includes seven He 111 bombers and three Messerschmitt Bf 110 fighter-bombers in heavy air battles against Luftwaffe, which tried to establish an air bridge to the besieged 6th Army of German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. He flew combat sorties over Donbas during the Izyum–Barvenkovo offensive of 1943.