The site, at Tehumardi, a small village in the south of Estonia's largest island, seems to have been used as a burial site for those who had died at a Red Army field hospital or similar medical facility, and only 10 sets of human remains had been found as of Tuesday afternoon – with over half the excavation work complete.

The grave markers and list of names indicated 190 deceased were interred in the sandy soil at Tehumardi (see gallery).

Archaeologist from the Estonian War Museum Arnold Unt told "Aktuaalne kaamer": "There is no mass grave here."

"This is a hospital burial. You can see splints and opened skulls on the buried individuals. So far, there have been no post-battle burials with coffins [found]," Unt went on.

Unt added that according to local lore, while around 190 Red Army soldiers did indeed fall in the October 1944 Battle of Tehumardi, some of the bodies were taken to Massinõmme cemetery, a few kilometers to the south, for burial.

The excavation work had begun Monday, following a request from Saaremaa Municipal Government.

Any remains found would be reburied at the nearby Vananõmme Cemetery, the municipality said.

The sites' sword-shaped obelisk is to remain, with some of the text on it to be obscured.

The Tehumardi site is one of the more prominent of many Soviet-era war graves and war memorials nationwide.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 concentrated minds on the presence of such relics, and the legal framework for their removal has evolved. When grave sites do indeed contain human remains, these will be re-interred at an alternative location. Grave markers and other details, if they include symbols of the Soviet regime, are often replaced by more neutral designs.

The Battle of Tehumardi was one of the major engagements during the  Moonsund Operation, an amphibious action by the Soviet 8th Army to take Saaremaa and which took place September to November 1944.

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