Ukraine's 'Collector of Souls' Killed Recovering War Dead
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- Oleksiy Yukov, 40, was killed on Aug. 5 when he stepped on a landmine during a body exhumation mission in the eastern Donetsk region, according to friend Serhiy Hnezdilov.
- Yukov was honored at an Orthodox Christian service in Kyiv attended by thousands, after prior mourning in his hometown of Sloviansk in Donetsk province.
- Yukov founded Platsdarm ('Bridgehead') after Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea to recover remains and provide dignified burials for war dead.
- Platsdarm volunteers recovered remains of Ukrainian and Russian soldiers as well as civilians; Yukov told Radio Free Europe: 'we remain human even in these circumstances and gather their military's dead bodies.'
- Yukov lost an eye and sustained a leg injury in a 2022 mine blast during recovery work but returned to the mission while still recovering, per The Associated Press.
- In the International Emmy-winning documentary Ukraine's Frontline Sacrifice, Yukov said he believes unburied souls wander and cannot be reborn until loved ones mourn and release them.
Why it matters: Yukov's death removes one of Ukraine's most experienced frontline recovery volunteers in a war the source says has 'claimed hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides,' slowing the painstaking work of identifying and returning remains to families. Platsdarm also recovered Russian dead — a cross-frontline humanitarian effort Yukov framed as preserving basic humanity 'even in these circumstances,' a thread the dominant 'mourning' framing barely surfaces.
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