The national war museum (Eesti Sõjamuuseum) is overseeing the dig at Tehumardi, in the south of Saaremaa, and as of the end of Tuesday's work, 10 skeletons had been found.

That number later grew to 25, and all the remains are thought to have been members of a Red Army medical unit.

The origin and time of burial of further remains found could not be determined on-site, and may well have been interred post-war.

Speaking to "Aktuaalne kaamera," war museum archaeologist Arnold Unt, said: "It is clear that they were brought here after the war, but there is no documentation of the reburials."

"This means we don't have any documentation to show where they were originally buried. They were brought here in multiple stage, and some burials are at completely different levels.

Some sets of remains seem to be those of more than one individual, he added.

"The coffins containing these remains are filled with various skeletal parts from different individuals. Only God knows who they were," Unt added.

Around 10 hand grenades were also found inside some of the coffins; these have been handed over to bomb disposal.

The Tehumardi site commemorated the October 1944 battle of the same name, part of the Soviet amphibious operation to take Saaremaa, and the claim was that the graves contained the remains of 190 who had fallen in that battle on the Soviet side.

The monument at the site is to be modified, but left in place, and all remains are being re-interred locally.

The project comes as part of a drive to purge Estonia's landscape, both rural and urban, from relics of nearly half-a-century of occupation. While this occupation ended over 30 years ago, minds have been concentrated following the invasion of Ukraine by the Soviet Union's successor state, the Russian Federation.

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