Russia on Thursday buried with full military honours the remains of almost 1,000 Soviet soldiers who died in one of the biggest battles on the Eastern Front, two days ahead of its Victory Day celebrations. The 964 soldiers were found at Sinyavino, close to the north-western city of Saint Petersburg, which saw a major Soviet offensive in the summer of 1942, aimed at breaking the Nazi blockade of Leningrad which had then lasted almost a year. The siege was finally lifted in January 1944 after 900 days. Nearly a million had died from starvation, disease and enemy fire.
The soldiers were buried at a memorial cemetery for those killed in World War II. Russian volunteers every year discover the remains of thousands of Red Army soldiers on former WWII battlefields. An estimated 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians were killed in the war.
Several hundred people attended the interment including local officials, volunteers and relatives of fallen soldiers. The remains, many of which remain unidentified, were buried in more than 50 coffins. One mourner, whose relative was among the soldiers being buried on Thursday, Boris Lifshits, praised the campaign, saying: "They are doing great work." "It's our duty to pay our last respects to the soldiers who perished in fighting against the Nazis," said one 18-year-old volunteer, Vyacheslav Sevostyanov.
The remains of nearly 15,000 people have already been found at Sinyavino and given a burial, but only around 3,000 of them could be identified. "If we find something that allows us to identify the soldiers - medals or other items - that's a real stroke of luck," volunteer Sevostyanov said.