Cooperation continues between Finland and Russia in retrieving remains of fallen soldiers

Despite the icy relations between Finland and Russia, some cooperation between the two countries continues. One notable example is the retrieval of remains of fallen soldiers found in various terrains, a task managed in Finland by the Association for Honoring War Heroes. This work relies exclusively on volunteers.

“We examine known battle sites and search for individuals, then go to the area to see if we can locate them,” explains Pertti Suominen, the association’s chairman. Finnish teams have not conducted searches in Russia for four years due to COVID-19 restrictions and border closures. However, cooperations with Russian authorities, as Suominen notes, have progressed smoothly despite the challenging global situation.

“The Russians primarily seek their own Soviet soldiers, but they inform us if they discover clearly identifiable remains of Finnish soldiers. We have been able to annually retrieve their findings,” he states. The process is reciprocal; if Soviet soldiers are discovered on the Finnish side, the same protocol follows.

Approximately 11,000 fallen heroes from the last wars are still unaccounted for, with over 1,600 having been found. Typically, about 20 are located each year. One such individual, Vilho Vainionpää from Southern Ostrobothnia, was recently laid to rest in his hometown of Kurikka. Vainionpää, just 19 when he went missing during the Continuation War, was part of the Jäger Battalion 5, which participated in a critical counterattack.

Identification requires a specific identification tag and a DNA sample from a relative. Vainionpää was identified after two attempts; the first did not yield positive results due to the condition of the remains. The celebration of life and burial honors took place recently and included military tributes, underlining the significance of recovering and honoring these fallen soldiers.