On September 16, on the fortieth day after the onset of Georgia's aggression against South Ossetia, Archpriest Dionisy Pozdnyaev held a memorial service for the victims of the military operations at the Venerable Cross on the premises of the Russian Embassy in Beijing. At the Panichida the parishioners of the Beijing Dormition parish, the diplomats of the Russian Embassy and their family members, guests who came at the Embassy to share their grief, all offered their prayers. In the short sermon after the Panichida, Archpriest Dionisy mentioned that those gathered have prayed both for the civilian victims of the military actions as well as for the officers and soldiers who gave their lives for the people and the fatherland. He also said that the number of victims on all sides, including the Georgian, might have been much higher if not for the decisive actions of Russia, which this time too stayed true to its commitment as a peacekeeper in the Caucasus.