PYONGYANG, February 23. /TASS/. A wreath-laying ceremony to the Liberation Monument to Soviet soldiers was held on Monday in the country on occasion of the Defender of the Fatherland Day.

The ceremony was led by Russia’s ambassador to Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, and Russia’s military attache Alexey Bartusov.

The event was attended by the representatives of North Korea’s defense ministry, the Society of the Korean-Russian friendship and military attaches of Vietnam, Cuba, Iran, Egypt and China.

A guard of honor was organized at the monument, and an orchestra played a military march. The participants of the ceremony laid wreaths at a cemetery where the Soviet Army soldiers and the Soviet Union citizens are buried.

According to the Russian embassy, 1,375 Soviet citizens, including 991 troops, are buried in mass or individual graves across North Korea.