A mournful ceremony will be held at Minsk Arena on September 8 to pay tribute to the players of Russia’s ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl who were killed in a plane crash on their way to the Belarusian capital on Wednesday afternoon.
The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m., the time when Lokomotiv Yaroslavl was due to meet Dinamo Minsk at the ice hockey arena in its opening game of the Kontinental Hockey League's 2011/2012 season.
The Dinamo Minsk press office said that it would donate all the revenue from sales of match tickets to the Russian club.
It said that fans with tickets for the game were welcomed to attend the ceremony.
"Should anyone wish to return the ticket and have his money back, the opportunity will be available during a period of 10 days," the press office said.
Meanwhile, Alyaksandr Lukashenka has offered condolences on behalf of the Belarusian nation and his own behalf to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over the crash.
"The death of members of the Lokomotiv hockey club came as a shock to all Belarusian fans who anticipated the match with one of the strongest and star-spangled team of the Kontinental Hockey League," Mr. Lukashenka said in his message. "The tragedy is a grievous loss for the whole sports community. The memory of those killed will be in our hearts forever, while their contribution to the development of ice hockey will go down in the history of professional sports."
