Victory Day Celebrated In South Korea With Flowers Laid To Russian Sailors Memorial

INCHEON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2023) Russian diplomats, foreign institution employees and nationals celebrated Victory Day in Incheon by laying flowers at the memorial dedicated to sailors of Russian cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz. a Sputnik correspondent reported on Tuesday.

The event was attended by Russian ambassador in Seoul Andrey Kulik, military attache Dmitry Zheleznikov, trade representative Alexander Masaltsev and employees of foreign institutions, as well as Russian nationals with their families, the reporter said.

The laying of the flowers on the Victory day was "logical and natural," Kulik said in his speech at the event.

"Gratitude to our ancestors who defended our country by showing unprecedented heroism and whole-hearted selflessness ... Every year, by celebrating the Victory Day on May 9 we are perfectly right to praise and honor the memory off all those who, just like in the Great Patriotic War, selflessly served their homeland, gave everything for prosperity and grandeur of (their) country.

Eternal memory," Kulik stated.

Russian delegates and nationals laid flowers to the monuments of Varyag and Korietz and took commemorative photographs.

As Russo-Japanese War began in February 1904, Japan's destroyers attacked Russian fleet in Port Arthur and blocked cruiser Varyag and gunboat Korietz in Chemulpo Bay. In attempt to break through to Port Arthur, Russian vessels engaged in an unequal fight with six Japanese cruisers and eight destroyers. Russian sailors managed to drown one destroyer and severely damage three cruisers, but were forced to return to port after sustaining heavy losses. In order to prevent the ships' capture and surrender, the sailors blew Korietz up and drowned Varyag.

The Varyag cruiser memorial was installed at Incheon embankment a century after the sea battle in February 2004.