Field work at military burial sites will be carried out in seven districts of the Vitebsk region in 2010

June 9, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Field work at unrecorded military burial sites in the Vitebsk region in 2010 will be carried out in seven districts, the deputy military commissar of the Vitebsk region military commissariat, Sergey Olsevich, told a BELTA correspondent. Soldiers of the specialized search battalion of the Ministry of Defense have already begun excavations near the village of Starikovichi in the Shumilinsky district, where a whole group of sappers was blown up during demining operations after the war. In the Braslavsky district, they will have to investigate a burial site dating back to approximately 1944. In the Vitebsky district, they will investigate the places where partisans and underground fighters died near the village of Luki and servicemen near the village of Atikino. Field work will also be carried out in the Dokshitsky, Dubrovensky, and Gorodoksky districts. In the latter, for example, there is an unrecorded burial site, which, according to preliminary data, contains the remains of fifty servicemen. In addition, search operations are also planned to be carried out at the sites of hostilities near Polotsk, where fierce battles took place in 1941-1943 with the participation of the city's defenders. The main part of the work to search for fallen servicemen during the Great Patriotic War will be carried out in the summer. The exhumation and reburial ceremonies of the found remains are scheduled for the autumn. "Perpetuating the memory of the resistance fighters and soldiers who defended their Motherland from the fascist-German invaders is one of the most important tasks of the Ministry of Defense. This is our tribute of respect to the veterans and fallen defenders for their feat," the interlocutor emphasized. Youth search associations also make a significant contribution to informing about previously unknown burials. Their active participation indicates that young people are proud of and honor the feat of their fathers and grandfathers, Sergey Olsevich added. Field search operations with excavations in 2009 were carried out in the Vitebsky, Dubrovensky, Lioznensky, Verkhnedvinsky, Lepelsky, Gorodoksky, and Polotsky districts of the Vitebsk region. A total of 30 search sites were worked on, where 5 medals, a medal "For Courage" of a sergeant from Tula, two F-1 grenades, about 300 cartridges, aircraft fragments, and 10 other relics were found. In addition, the remains of 322 servicemen were exhumed. It was possible to establish the names of over 1.3 thousand servicemen who died during the Great Patriotic War in the region. -0-