A farewell ceremony was held in Kyiv on Saturday, August 8, 2026, for Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer, military archaeologist, and head of the Platsdarm humanitarian search group. For more than two decades, he dedicated himself to searching for, exhuming, and returning the remains of fallen soldiers to their homes.
"Oleksiy Yukov was a well-known volunteer and searcher for the bodies of fallen soldiers. Thanks to him, thousands of Ukrainian families were able to bid a dignified farewell to their loved ones who gave their lives for Ukraine. And today we said goodbye to Oleksiy. My sincere condolences to his family and loved ones," Deputy Head of the President’s Office Iryna Vereschuk, who attended the ceremony, said on Telegram.
He used to say: "We’re not rescuing the dead; we’re rescuing the living. Because this is about the families who are waiting."
Originally, the farewell ceremony for Oleksiy was planned for the evening of August 7 in the village of Mykilsk, in his native Donetsk region. However, the official ceremony had to be cancelled due to the high risk of a targeted Russian strike with guided aerial bombs. Despite the threat, Oleksiy’s loved ones, colleagues, and students still gathered at another location to pay their respects.
Yukov began searching for the fallen as a teenager, tracking down the remains of the Second World War soldiers. Since 2014, the Platsdarm unit he founded has been the first in Ukraine to evacuate bodies from modern battlefields in the hottest conflict zones (Ilovaisk, Debaltseve, Bakhmut). They also collaborated with the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Na Shchyti (On the Shield) project and retrieved the bodies of Russian soldiers for subsequent exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war and fallen soldiers.
During the full-scale invasion alone, Yukov’s team recovered the remains of nearly 2,000 people. In 2024, he received the Golden Heart presidential award.
The volunteer’s life was cut short on August 5, 2026, in Lyman community in Donetsk region – the search team’s vehicle struck an enemy mine during a routine mission. On August 8, 2026, an online petition to the President of Ukraine requesting that Oleksiy Yukov be posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine reached the required 25,000 signatures and is currently awaiting review. The Platsdarm team assured that despite the loss of their leader, his mission will continue.
