MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry has lost "an outstanding diplomat" and "a man dear to us," Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday commenting on the sudden death of Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin.

"Vitaly Ivanovich Churkin has died a sudden death in New York today. Tomorrow he would have turned 65," she wrote on her Facebook account. "A great diplomat. An outstanding man. A strong personality. We have lost a dear one."