Armenia’s Interior Ministry said the body of a Ukrainian citizen was recovered from the mountain lake on August 13.
Later local media as well as Ukraine’s foreign ministry confirmed that the drowned man was Oleksandr Senchenko, who led Ukraine’s embassy in Yerevan for the past year or so.
The Armenian rescue service was quoted by local media as saying that on Sunday evening lifeguards at a public beach at Lake Sevan spotted a man at a distance of 25 meters from the shore who disappeared while swimming.
“Lifeguards swam towards the area and lifted a man from the bottom that was 1.5 meters deep, taking him to the shore on a rubber motor boat. Ambulance service workers registered the man’s death,” a report said.
In reporting the tragic death of Senchenko, Ukraine’s foreign ministry described him as an experienced and highly qualified diplomat who had worked in the ministry since 2003.
The Armenian police said materials related to the drowning of the Ukrainian citizen had been sent to Sevan’s investigation department.
No other details related to the circumstances of Senchenko’s death were reported immediately.
According to Armenia’s embassy in Ukraine, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan extended condolences on behalf of the entire staff of Armenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on his personal behalf to his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba on the tragic death of Ukraine’s charge d’affaires Senchenko.