Russia appeals to Afghans for help finding its lost soldiers

Russia has appealed to the ­Afghan authorities and public to provide information on more than 200 troops listed as missing since Soviet forces ended their occupation of Afghanistan in 1989 – including 30 to 40 who are thought may still be alive.

Russian ambassador Andrey Avetisyan yesterday said the two countries are preparing an agreement that would regulate future efforts to recover the servicemen, who went missing during a decade of guerrilla warfare in the impoverished nation.

He noted that difficulties remain in accessing some areas believed to contain soldiers’ graves because of the current war between international forces, the Taleban and other insurgents.

“We are talking about places where nobody goes, remote points where fighting is still heavy,” he told reporters.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on 27 December, 1979, telling the world it aimed to transform Afghanistan into a modern socialist state. Moscow sought to prop up a communist regime facing a popular uprising, but left on 15 February, 1989 largely defeated by anti-communist mujahideen forces receiving massive support from the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and others.

A Russian veterans group says 265 soldiers remain unaccounted for. About 20 are thought to have resettled in other countries after they deserted, while 30 to 40 may still be in Afghanistan or Pakistan. One of those was Nikolai Bystrov, an army lieutenant captured by guerrillas fighting the Soviet occupation. He later became the personal bodyguard of Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who battled the Taleban during the 1990s.

Aleksander Lavrentyev, deputy head of a veterans group searching for Soviet missing, said his group had excellent help from Afghan authorities, the Red Crescent and other groups in locating the remains of 15 soldiers in the past four years.