Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer who spent two decades recovering the remains of soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, was killed Wednesday during a recovery mission in the eastern Donetsk region. According to a social media post by his friend Serhiy Hnezdilov, the 40-year-old stepped on a landmine while attempting to exhume a body. Yukov was the head of the Ukrainian search unit Platsdarm, an organization he founded in 2014 to provide burials for those killed in conflict.
A funeral service for Yukov was held Saturday at St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral in Kyiv, following an earlier memorial in his hometown of Sloviansk. Yukov, who became interested in searching for remains on World War II battlefields as a teenager, had previously sustained a leg injury and lost an eye in a 2022 mine blast. Despite those injuries, he returned to the frontlines to continue his work once he recovered.
Platsdarm volunteers operate by first surveying areas with drones and then using probes and metal detectors to locate explosives. Yukov stated in a previous profile that his team recovered the remains of both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, as well as civilians. The ongoing conflict has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
The scale of this effort involves searching thousands of hectares of land often littered with unexploded ordnance and mines. While the exact number of bodies Yukov recovered was not reported, his work spanned two decades and reached across both sides of the frontline. A person living in the conflict zones of eastern Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region, would notice the absence of these specialized recovery teams, which often represent the only chance for a dignified burial in areas where formal government services may be restricted by active combat.
Beyond the immediate loss of a recovery specialist, Yukov’s death highlights the persistent danger posed by landmines, which remain active long after initial fighting subsides. This sets a precedent for the continued risk faced by humanitarian workers and civilians in the region for years to come. While thousands gathered to pay their respects on Saturday, the recovery missions in the Donetsk region continue under high-risk conditions, with no reported date for when the areas will be fully cleared of explosives.