Russia handed over to Italy the remains of 121 Italian soldiers who were killed during World War II when the two countries were fighting each other, Ria Novosti news agency reported.

“They are all victims of this war,” Alexander Kirilin of Russia’s Defence Ministry said at a ceremony at an airport in the Moscow region.

The remains were exhumed by an international association that has been involved for the last 20 years in the remembrance of the fate of soldiers killed at war.

Since 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union the remains of 10,542 people have been handed over to Italy, of which 2,799 were identified, Ria Novosti said.

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