MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to Bulgakov, a group of Russian military scouts and German volunteers will search for remains of WWII soldiers who lie unburied on the Gogland and Bolshoi Tyuters islands. Bulgakov explained that in 2015, the German war graves commission sought the Russian Defense Ministry's permission to bury these fallen German soldiers in a German graveyard near Saint Petersburg.
"This morning, Gogland expedition, comprising two teams, both international and of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), left for islands in the Gulf of Finland," Bulgakov told journalists.
The RGS team will clear another 14 islands of rusting WWII war machinery.
The expedition which is the forth RGS expert trip to islands in the Gulf of Finland involves some 100 Russian servicemen and 20 units of military equipment.
The islands saw fierce fighting during WWII. In 2015 alone, explorers discovered 55 arms and armaments units left over since 1944 and defused more than 1500 explosives on Bolshoy Tyuters island.
