Ukraine commemorates volunteer who died retrieving war casualties

Thousands gathered at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr in Kyiv for an Orthodox ceremony honoring Oleksiy Yukov, a 40-year-old volunteer who called himself a “collector of souls.” Yukov founded the Platsdarm organization to locate and bury bodies of civilians and soldiers, including many Russian casualties, believing that every dead person merits a dignified burial. A native of the conflict-scarred Donbas region and former martial-arts teacher, he began retrieving remains as a teenager after encountering World War II Soviet and Russian soldiers.

In 2022 he survived a mine explosion that injured his leg and took an eye, yet he returned to the dangerous fields, describing the work as a religious duty. On Aug. 5 a landmine detonated during a recovery operation, killing him. His final social-media post urged that no body be left to rot, emphasizing that honoring each soul is part of the fight.