Ukraine mourns "collector of souls" Oleksiy Yukov, killed recovering war dead

Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! He was killed during a recovery mission after stepping on a landmine. Special Series Ukraine invasion — explained The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order."Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all. Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv on Saturday. Ukraine invasion — explained Ukraine negotiator: 'We have the upper hand' Yukov, 40, was killed on Aug. 5 when he stepped on the mine during an effort to exhume a body, according to a social media post by his friend, Serhiy Hnezdilov. "This is a great loss for me personally and for the people close to me," he wrote in a translation published by Kyiv Post. "[H]e gave names back to the dead." Thousands of Ukrainians paid their respects to Yukov in an Orthodox Christian service in the capital. Before the service in Kyiv, Yukov was mourned and honored in his hometown of Sloviansk in Donetsk province. Yukov was known for his tireless efforts to bring closure to the families of those killed in the war. As a teenager, Yukov became interested in searching for the remains on WWII battlefields in Ukraine, according to Ukrainska Pravda. After the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, he founded Platsdarm ("Bridgehead") to recover remains and provide dignified burials for the dead, the newspaper said. Bram Janssen/AP hide caption As part of a profile of Yukov, the newspaper quoted him as saying that he and a small group of Platsdarm volunteers would set off early every morning. "If it's a safe area, we survey the territory with a drone. We check trenches, craters, shell holes, belongings, rubbish bins," he said. "Then we divide the area into grids and search for mines and explosive devices using probes and metal detectors. We call in bomb disposal experts, who destroy or neutralize them. Then we carefully search the area for bodies." Yukov and his team recovered not just Ukrainian soldiers, but Russian soldiers, too, as well as civilians killed as a result of the conflict that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides of the fighting. Months into the full-scale war that began in Feb. 2022, Yukov told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that Russia "has caused tremendous grief for us." Russia, he said "started a war against us; it is ruining our cities and killing our people. But we remain human even in these circumstances and gather their military's dead bodies." In an International Emmy-award winning documentary about Platsdarm's work, titled Ukraine's Frontline Sacrifice, Yukov said that he believes souls are reborn. Music Why Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska's heart is in Ukraine "If the body is not yet buried, the body remains with the soul. And until it is mourned, until its loved ones let it go, it cannot be reborn – the soul wanders. And the war will not end as long as souls wander." Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor