Yesterday morning, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow, the apostolic nuncio, Monsignor Celestino Migliore, in the presence of the ambassador of Italy, Pasquale Terracciano and of the defense attache gen.b. Alfonso Miro, officiated a mass of suffrage for 100 Italian soldiers who died in Russia during the 2nd World War and were soon destined to return to their homeland to be buried at the Military Memorial of Cargnacco.
The identification, exhumation and subsequent repatriation of the identified Italian fallen was a long and delicate activity carried out by the Russian association "I Memoriale Militari" on the initiative of the Historical-Statistics Directorate of the General Commissariat for the Defense of the Fallen Defense through the military office of the Italian embassy in Moscow.
The remains of the fallen Italian soldiers, after the blessing, will be kept in dedicated rooms before the final return to Italy at the Marco Polo Airport in Venice with a flight from Moscow, which will take place in the coming days.
In the Military Shrine of Cargnacco lie about 8700 (of which about 500 known) fallen Italians who from the 1990 were repatriated from Russia. To this number are added other fallen 3086 identified that after returning to the homeland were entrusted to the families of origin.
