‘The only thing still working’: Russia and UK agreement to tend war graves transcends bitter international relations

Ivan Petrov
1 Min Read
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FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S President Joe Biden shake hands during their meeting at the 'Villa la Grange' in Geneva, Switzerland in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. Russia, the United States and its NATO allies are meeting this week for negotiations focused on Moscow's demand for Western security guarantees and Western concerns about a recent buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)

In graves at Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok, in Russia, lie the bodies of 663 British military personnel. Most of the dead lost their lives in the period just after the first world war, when allied troops were sent to support rightwing White forces in the Russian civil war against the Bolsheviks, while 41 are casualties from the second world war Arctic convoys.

Their resting places have been tended over decades by the Russian military and by private contractors, paid by the UK’s Commonwealth War Graves Commission. But after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, economic sanctions meant Britain could no longer pay for the graves to be maintained.

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