Ukrainian Diplomat ‘Drowns’ Under Mysterious Circumstances

A 56-year-old Ukrainian diplomat has died under mysterious circumstances while swimming in a lake in Armenia.

Oleksandr Senchenko allegedly ‘drowned’ in just five feet of water in Lake Sevan which apparently had a temperature of 22°C when his lifeless body was discovered by lifeguards some 25 ft from the shoreline. A team of medics deployed to the location attempted to revive him but without success.

‘Lifeguards on duty at a Sevan public beach noted the disappearance of a man swimming in the lake at 8:17 pm on Sunday. The lifeguards pulled the man out of the water, but paramedics determined that he had died’, said the Armenian Interior Ministry in a statement.

An investigation into his demise is believed to have been launched by the Armenian authorities. There has been no suggestion that the diplomat’s death was engineered in any way, but since the conflict began in Ukraine, many politicians and high-profile people have met with untimely ends.

Located at a height of 6,234 ft above sea level in the country’s Gegharkunik Province, Lake Sevan is one of the largest freshwater high-altitude lakes in Eurasia and the largest body of water in both Armenia and the Caucasus region.

The Ukrainian Foreign Office expressed its sadness

A statement released by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said: ‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announces with deep sadness the tragic death on August 13, 2023, of an experienced and highly qualified diplomat, Chargé d’Affaires of Ukraine in the Republic of Armenia Oleksandr Anatolyevich Senchenko’, according to rbc.ru.

While some officials said that they: ‘do not know if his death was natural causes’, the Foreign Ministry refused to comment further on the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death.

Senchenko was working at the embassy in Yerevan

At the time of his death, Senchenko was the acting ambassador to Armenia, working at Kyiv’s embassy in the capital city of Yerevan. The chargé d’affaires was the most senior Ukrainian envoy operating in the country.

His role at the embassy involved monitoring Russian importers who might attempt to find a way of circumventing the sanctions that are in place against Moscow.

Armenia does not share a border with either Ukraine or Russia but only Georgia separates it from the latter. Yerevan enjoys a close political relationship with the governments of both countries.