CWGC welcomes care of graves of British soldiers in Russia

Despite the tension between Moscow and London, the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has approved the care of British military graves in Russia. This was reported by The Guardian on March 23.

"The bodies of 663 British servicemen are buried in graves in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, in Russia," the newspaper reported.

It is noted that most of them died in the period immediately after the First World War, when Allied troops were sent to support the right-wing white forces in the Russian civil war against the Bolsheviks, another 41 people died during the Arctic convoys of the Second World War.

The resting places of British citizens have been tended for decades by Russian military and private contractors paid for by CWGC. However, after the start of Russia's special operation in Ukraine, the UK could no longer pay for the maintenance of graves.

"We have not seen (the British. — Ed.) graves, but we think they are still being cared for... We take care of the graves (of Soviet soldiers. — Ed.) in our cemeteries," said Gareth Hardwer, the commission's regional director for the UK and the Nordic countries.

Earlier, on January 31, the Russian Embassy in Estonia sent a protest note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic due to the demolition of a monument to Red Army soldiers at a mass grave in the city of Valga. The mission described the dismantling of the memorial as a "new act of state vandalism" by the Estonian authorities against fallen soldiers.