Ukraine Honours ‘Collector Of Souls’ Volunteer Killed Recovering War Dead

Ukraine has honoured Oleksiy Yukov, a 40-year-old volunteer who spent more than two decades recovering the bodies of soldiers and civilians killed in war. He was killed in a landmine blast during a recovery mission on Wednesday.

Thousands gathered at Kyiv’s Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr on Saturday. Many later knelt as his coffin was carried through Maidan Square. Memorial services were also held in other Ukrainian cities.

Yukov, from the Donbas region, began searching for war dead as a teenager after finding the remains of Soviet and German soldiers from World War II. He later founded Platsdarm, an organisation that has worked to recover bodies since 2014.

The group’s work became even more important after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. It has recovered about 1,500 bodies, including Russian soldiers. Volunteers search fields, forests and ruined areas near the front. They can spend hours looking for even tiny human remains and clues that may help identify the dead.

The work was dangerous even for Yukov. A mine blast in 2022 injured his leg and caused him to lose an eye. He still returned to the frontline. His team continued working despite mines, drones and shelling.

His work was also featured in the 2026 documentary “Return My Name”, which follows efforts to find missing soldiers and return their remains to their families.

Yukov believed every dead person deserved a proper burial, even enemy soldiers. His widow, Evhenyia Kaluhyna, has promised to continue his work.

His death came as Russia and Ukraine exchanged another deadly round of overnight strikes. In Russia’s Belgorod region, Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured about two dozen others, including a 4-year-old boy, Russian regional authorities said. Twenty-nine apartment buildings and several houses were also damaged.

In Ukraine, Russian missiles hit a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv, killing two people and injuring 13. Strikes on the Black Sea port of Odesa injured eight more people, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia said it had shot down 153 Ukrainian drones overnight.

The latest attacks again showed how civilians on both sides continue to pay the price as the war enters another deadly phase.