Ukraine honours Oleksiy Yukov, volunteer who recovered war dead

Kyiv,UPDATED: Aug 8, 2026 18:12 IST

Ukraine on Saturday paid tribute to Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer who spent more than two decades recovering the bodies of civilians and soldiers killed by war, many of them Russian. Yukov, 40, died in a landmine explosion during a recovery mission on August 5.

Thousands gathered to pay their respects at an Orthodox Christian service at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr in central Kyiv. Yukov had founded the Platsdarm organisation because he believed all the dead should receive a proper burial, a belief that led some to know him as a "collector of souls".

Yukov was from the war-hit Donbas region and worked as a martial arts instructor. He began recovering the dead as a teenager after coming across the remains of Soviet and Russian soldiers from World War II. Platsdarm volunteers search fields and forests, move through ruins and cross dangerous ground that is often mined.

In 2022, Yukov suffered leg injuries and lost an eye in a mine blast. Even as he was still recovering, he returned to the field. In a social media post last month, he described the conditions in which he worked, saying, "Remote mines, shelling, drones - everything is against you. But you go and do everything to ensure that every soul returns home." He also responded to those who felt Russian bodies should be abandoned, writing: "When they say: 'Let them rot,' I do not agree. This is how we fight for every soul."

Yukov often spoke about his work in religious terms, saying a body was a soul waiting to go home. "This is action," he wrote. "Action every day in the fields, in the forest belts, among the ruins, where your life can end at any moment." His death has drawn attention once again to the risks taken by those who recover the war dead and to the belief that guided his work for years.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends