Vilnius has rejected Moscow’s accusations of desecrating Soviet soldiers’ remains in Lithuania, calling them false and absurd.
"The repeated accusations against our country regarding the reburial of Soviet Union soldiers who died in Lithuania during World War II are false and absurd," the foreign ministry said in a statement to BNS.
Moscow accused Lithuania of desecrating the memory of Soviet troops after the Elektrėnai municipality decided to rebury the remains of over 100 World War Two soldiers located in Vievis, central Lithuania. The Russian foreign ministry also lodged a formal protest with a Lithuanian diplomat.
"The Russian Federation is deliberately distorting the real situation in an attempt to create a negative image of Lithuania and thus justify its own legal actions against Lithuania, which are detached from reality," the ministry said.
Earlier, Lithuania exhumed Soviet remains buried in Šiauliai, relocating them following archaeological investigations.
