Russian Ambassador to Japan Nikolay Nozdrev will attend a ceremony in Nagasaki on Aug. 9 commemorating the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city, Moscow's state-run Tass news agency reported Thursday, citing the Russian Embassy in Tokyo.
Nozdrev will be the first Russian representative to attend the annual peace ceremony since the country's invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
The decision to send the ambassador was made after Nagasaki city officials visited the embassy to extend an invitation, according to the embassy.
In May, Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki said that his city would invite the Russian ambassador to this year's ceremony.
Last year, Nozdrev criticized the governments of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, another city hit by a U.S. atomic bomb in 1945, for not inviting representatives of Russia to their memorial ceremonies.
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