A plane carrying the body of Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin has arrived in Moscow from New York.
The plane arrived on February 23, three days after Churkin died suddenly the day before his 65th birthday.
Churkin's funeral will take place on February 24 at the Russian Foreign Ministry, and he will be interred at Moscow's Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
Churkin, one of Russia's top diplomats, was named UN ambassador in April 2006. On February 21, the UN Security Council held a minute of silence in his honor.
Russia's mission to the UN announced that "more than 300" Russian and foreign diplomats, including Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak and U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, attended a memorial service for Churkin in New York on February 22.
