The German War Graves Commission has discovered a mass grave containing the remains of 800 German soldiers assumed to have been killed during the World War II.
The discovery was made during the building work in the south-western Russian city of Volgograd, the German War Graves Commission said on Friday, January 11, 2019.
According to the Commission, while water pipes were being laid for the building works, the gruesome discovery was made in the once fiercely-contested city, previously known as Stalingrad.
It added that full excavation of the grave will be problematic as a position of the grave is located under a housing development project.
In the Winter if 1942/43, 700,000 soldiers and civilians on both sides are estimated to have died in the battle that finally resulted in the victory of Soviet troops at the Battle of Stalingrad and is considered a major turning point in the war.
However, some historians believe that more than one million people died during the battle, as most of them froze to death in the temperatures which are reported to have been below zero at the time.
The bones which have been discovered in the mass grave are reportedly believed to have belonged to soldiers, who died in 1942/43, the association disclosed.
It also revealed that the men were hastily buried in the grave which also contained animals, to contain the possible spread of diseases.
The German War Graves Commission has been working with the Russian government in the area for about 25 years.
The Commission has noted that, If the remains are clearly identified with the help of identifying features and historical documents, the families of the slain soldiers will be contacted.
The remains, when identified, will then be reburied in official military cemeteries such as Rossoshka, about 40 kilometres outside Volgograd, as other soldiers before and after them.
