In Latvia, bags with the remains of Red Army soldiers are piling up, Moscow doesn't care 0 13

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor, the transfer of the remains of Russian Red Army soldiers found in Latvia or their reburial in cemeteries has effectively ceased, as Moscow no longer cares about these remains. Currently, about 2000 bones of Red Army soldiers are stored in Latvia. What to do with them next — no one really knows, reports TV3 News.

During World War II, a significant part of Latvia's territory became a battlefield, where both the Red Army and the German armed forces suffered heavy losses. The exact number of casualties in Latvia is unknown, but it is estimated to be tens of thousands on both sides.

For 27 years, volunteers from the "Legend" society, in cooperation with the Committee of Fraternal Cemeteries, have been engaged in the search for and reburial of soldiers. It is led by Talis Eshmits. He explains that previously, each found Red Army soldier meant the initiation of a whole complex of legally regulated procedures, resulting in the remains being repatriated to Russia or reburied in one of the cemeteries for Soviet soldiers.

"Everything worked more or less normally. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, because not everything is always straightforward in this process, but at least we were doing it. After 2022, everything stopped," Eshmits clarifies.

It stopped not from the side of Latvia, but from across the border. The search team still goes on expeditions and regularly receives calls from people who, for example, find soldiers' bones during construction or agricultural work. Some of them are the remains of Red Army soldiers, which are now just piling up.

In one of the warehouses near Riga, about 2000 bones of Red Army soldiers who died on Latvian territory are already stored in bags marked with the place of discovery.

"It feels like the Russian side is no longer interested at all. They ignore the situation because there have been cases where remains were found and identified. Red Army soldiers were found in Latgale. Relatives are in Russia and expressed a desire to bring them home. The Latvian side agreed to everything, the documents are prepared. The Russian side — simply does nothing," says Eshmits.

Meanwhile, other countries continue to cooperate, and the remains of their soldiers are being reburied. In the same warehouse next to the bags of bones, there are also small coffins. All of them contain the remains of German soldiers, who will finally — 81 years after the end of the war — be buried with honors. Meanwhile, the volunteers of "Legend" continue their work, and if the shovels find another Red Army soldier, his remains are not left in the ground.

"We respectfully exhume them, transport them to the warehouse, or, as it is now fashionable to say, to the bone repository. And then we look at what decisions will be made. Because you can't approach this like: Red Army — that means no. First of all, they were all human beings. Secondly, this army had representatives of various nationalities," explains Eshmits.

During World War II, Latvians also found themselves in the ranks of the Red Army. It is believed that about 100,000 Latvians fought in its ranks, both voluntarily and through conscription, more than a third of whom did not return home.