Russia mourns victims of Tu-154 plane crash

Russia is observing a nationwide day of mourning in remembrance of 92 people, who died in a passenger aircraft crash near the resort city of Sochi in the early hours of Sunday, December 25. Belarus also declared a national day of mourning.

The day of mourning was proclaimed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree on Sunday following the Tu-154 tragedy. All national flags in the country on Monday will be flying half-mast, while all cultural and entertainment activities dedicated to upcoming New Year festivities will be cancelled, including on national television channels.

The temple on the territory of the local airport held a memorial service, it was visited by the Minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev and the Mayor of Sochi, Anatoly Pakhomov.

A few hundred residents of Sevastopol held a mourning rally. The head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov postponed his final press conference in connection with mourning.

Teachers, graduates and students of the Orel State Institute of Arts and Culture will commemorate the four high school graduates who died in the crash - Dmitry Litvyakov, Boris Suleimanov, Arcadiy Uzlovsky and Nadedzda Marchenkova.

Yesterday, the commemorating event took place in Rostov. It was attended by youth, student and public organizations of Rostov and citizens. The head of the Administration of Rostov Vitaly Kushnarev sent his condolences to the bereaved families.

The leaders of many countries extended their condolences over the disaster: Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman, President of Moldova Igor Dodon and others.

The Russian Defense Ministry’s Tu-154 plane disappeared from radar screens at 05.40 a.m. Moscow time (02.40 a.m. GMT) shortly after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi on early Sunday.

There were 92 people on board the aircraft in total, including eight crew members and 84 passengers. Among the passengers was the Executive Director of the Spravedlivaya Pomoshch (Fair Aid) charity fund, Elizaveta Glinka, as well as military servicemen and nine reporters, from Russian television channels Channel One, Zvezda and NTV.

The plane was also carrying 68 members of the famous Alexandrov Ensemble, an official army choir of the Russian Armed Forces. The ensemble was on its way to celebrate the New Year with the group of Russia’s Aerospace Forces at the Hmeymim air base in Syria.