MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) will set up a task force to study lunar soil samples that China handed over to Russia in February last year, the Space Research Institute within the RAS told TASS on Monday.

"The Space Research Institute and the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry within the Russian Academy of Sciences will set up a consortium [to study the samples]," the press office of the Space Research Institute said, without specifying when the task force would begin studying the lunar soil.

China National Space Administration (CNSA) reported earlier on Monday that China had donated 1.5 grams of lunar soil to Russia for scientific purposes during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing in February 2022. The samples handed over to Russia were collected from the surface of the Earth’s natural satellite during China’s Chang’e 5 lunar exploration mission in December 2020.