Ukraine's Border Guards Discover WW1 Weapons Cache

While Ukraine may be embroiled in a bitter conflict with Russia, a discovery on the Polish-Ukrainian border is a reminder that the region has been fought over many times during its history.

On 26 September, the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service announced that while patrolling the Ukrainian-Polish-Slovakian border area, in the Uzhhorod region, members of the service’s Stuzhytsia detachment discovered a large cache of weapons.

According to a post on the Western Regional Directorate of the Border Guard Service’s Facebook page the outline of a rifle was spotted and after some excavation 75 M1891 Mosin-Nagant rifles, 3 hand grenades and around 4,500 rounds of ammunition were found. The 7.62x54mmR ammunition was found still in its stripper clips.

Here's a machine translation of the Border Guard Service's post about the cache:

“While patrolling the Ukrainian-Polish section of the border, servicemen of the "Stuzhytsia" department of the Chopsky detachment discovered a cache of firearms of the times behind the line of engineering structures. World War. The border guards noticed the details of the rifle, which were visible from under the ground.

The place of discovery was secured and employees of the National Police and the National Security Service were called. The latter got 4,500 cartridges and 3 hand grenades from the ground and removed them in the established order. Later, National Police officers found and seized 75 units of 7.62-mm Mosin rifles found in the cache.”

The Mosin-Nagant rifles all have their socket bayonets fixed but their stocks have largely rotted away and their barrels, receivers and bolts have corroded badly after what is likely over a century in the ground.

Dating the cache isn't too difficult, firstly the 7.62x54mmR rounds have spitzer bullets dating them to post-1908 manufacture. The grenades, however, narrow it down even further, as they appear to be Lishin Stick Grenades which were some of the earliest ‘modern’ grenades used. First emerging in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War, they continued in service during World War One. During the war the Lishin Grenades were superseded by improved grenades like the Model 1914. 

How the cache came to be buried is unclear but World War One and it's immediate aftermath saw a great deal of upheaval in Eastern Europe.