The remains of a Soviet soldier, who died in Afghanistan almost 30 years ago, will be reburied in his home country, the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, following an honorary ceremony on Moscow’s Poklonnaya Gora on Tuesday, the deputy head of a Moscow-based committee in charge of Afghan veterans’ affairs said on Friday.
Alexei Zuyev joined Soviet troops in Afghanistan in June 1982 as a military driver. He went missing in the Parwan province to the north of Kabul in February 1983. He was about 19 years old.
The remains, believed to be Zuyev’s, were discovered two years ago during an expedition organized by the committee.
“We had some information that Zuyev had been shot dead and we found people who showed us the place where they believed he was buried,” , Alexander Lavrentyev said.
The remains were taken to Moscow, where it took experts two years to identify him, he said.
Zuyev was one of more than 15,000 Soviet soldiers who died in Afghanistan during the 1979-1989 war against the mujahideen. More than 260 Soviet soldiers who fought in Afghanistan are still listed as missing.
“Since our withdrawal from Afghanistan, we have continued our search for those soldiers,” Lavrentyev said, adding that search expeditions are organized almost every year.
