- Soldiers and volunteers are trying to find four million soldiers lost during combat
- Youngsters are pictured searching for remains next to Red Army soldier skeleton
- Stack of skulls and bones were found during search in Russia’s Stavropol region
Fascinating pictures show a group of young Russian volunteers helping dig up the remains of Red Army soldiers killed in World War Two.
The group of teenagers can be seen peering into upturned soil as the skeleton of a fallen fighter lies nearby at an excavation site in the village of Didymkin in Stavropol.
As many as 12 bodies were recovered from the area by the military, members of military-patriotic camps and volunteers at the end of April.
Young Russian volunteers digging alongside two soldiers at a battlefield in the village of Didymkin in Stavropol, Russia
Piles of skulls, leg bones and other remains excavated by soldiers and volunteers
Their work is part of a drive to give a proper burial – and in some cases a name – to soldiers who fought in the battle Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Twenty-six million people were killed on the Eastern front between 1939 and 1945.
Searches for lost fighters have been underway as the nation tries to track down as many as four million of those soldiers who went missing in action.
Soldiers carefully sort through the remains wearing protective gloves, trying to piece together the skeletons in the hope of finding out who the fallen soldiers were and give them a proper burial
A rusted Russian military star pin found by a member of a search team among remains of Red Army soldiers
The skull of a Red Army soldier is examined by a member of the search team in Stavropol
The stark photos taken in Stavropol show young boys working alongside Russian soldiers in some of the battlefields, carefully digging up remains.
Piles of skulls and bones can be seen stacked beside them in one picture.
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