Spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova has said that Russia formally sent a note of protest to Armenia over the desecration of a World War II memorial in the city of Gyumri.

Zakharova said the incident involving the memorial to the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War was not merely vandalism but a deliberate act targeting shared historical memory, The Caspian Post reports via TASS.

She described the act as an attempt to insult the legacy of the “Great Victory” and confirmed that Moscow had officially delivered a diplomatic protest to the Armenian side.