In Kopty, the remains of two unknown soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War were reburied

The reburial ceremony with full military honors took place on June 22, the 75th anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War.

Fragments of bone remains and firearms were found during excavation work near house No. 70/3 on Moskovsky Prospekt in September last year. The 52nd separate specialized search battalion of the Ministry of Defense of Belarus then took over the excavations, and the servicemen found the remains of Red Army soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War. The results of the medico-criminalistic examination confirmed that the burial belongs to this period (belonging was determined by the discovered rifles and an RGD grenade). The identities of the Fatherland defenders could not be established.

– On this tragic day for our republic, June 22, we are laying to rest the ashes of the Red Army soldiers who died in the battle for the Motherland. Relatives and loved ones still do not know how they died. We must remember those soldiers who defended the Motherland, who gave us the opportunity to live and develop in modern Belarus, – noted the Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee, Petr Podgursky, at the solemn memorial ceremony.

He also mentioned that this is the first reburial of soldiers who fought during the Great Patriotic War at the military section of the "Kopti" city cemetery. The remains of all Fatherland defenders found during search operations in the Vitebsk region will now rest here.

Representatives of the city authorities, educational institutions, youth and public organizations, and military-patriotic clubs of the city came to honor the memory of the unknown soldiers who fought and died in battles for the regional center.

– More than a million Red Army soldiers perished in battles on the territory of Belarus, but only a third of the names of the fallen are inscribed on the memorial plaques of the mass graves. Every day, we receive dozens of emails from relatives of fallen soldiers asking us to find and establish the place of death and burial of their ancestors. The work on

the identification of the fallen soldiers must continue, – is confident **Anatoly Burdo, chairman of the youth public organization "Military-Patriotic Club "Poisk"**.

In the evening, the regional center also hosted a rally dedicated to the Day of National Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War, and a solemn laying of wreaths at the military burial site on Sovetskaya Street.

Natalia Kamlyova. Photo by Dmitry Osipov. "Vitebskiye Vesti".