YEREVAN (Azatutyun) — Ukraine’s charge d’affaires in Armenia has died in an apparent drowning incident at Lake Sevan that was reported by the country’s authorities and confirmed by the Ukrainian foreign ministry on Monday, August 14.
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.
