KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine paid tribute on Saturday to Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer who spent more than two decades recovering the bodies of civilians and soldiers — many of them Russian — killed by war. He was 40.
An Orthodox Christian service was held at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr, in central Kyiv, where thousands of people gathered to pay their respects following his death in a landmine explosion during a recovery mission on Aug. 5. Mourners also gathered at Kyiv's main Maidan Square before the service.
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Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Fellow soldiers carry the coffin of Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, during farewell service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Relatives mourn at the coffin of Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, during farewell service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Yukov founded the Platsdarm ("bridgehead") organization because he believed all the dead require a proper burial. He became known as a “collector of souls.”
Yukov, from the war-torn Donbas region, was a martial arts instructor, He began recovering the dead as a teenager after encountering the remains of Soviet and Russian soldiers from World War II.
Platsdarm’s volunteers go into fields and forests, among ruins and across territory, where the ground is often mined.
Yukov's widow, Evhenyia Kaluhyna, promised to continue his work, sobbing as she spoke at the funeral, wearing an embroidered white dress and standing over her husband's open casket.
“The work was difficult and terrifying,” she said. “But I promise you we will continue it because the (dead) deserve it, and you deserve it for everything you did.”
Yukov had suffered leg injuries and lost an eye in a mine blast in 2022. Still recovering from those injuries, he returned to the front line.
In a social media post last month, Yukov described the landscape in which he worked.
“Remote mines, shelling, drones — everything is against you. But you go and do everything to ensure that every soul returns home,” he said.
He also addressed those who believed Russian bodies should simply be left behind: “When they say: ‘Let them rot,’ I do not agree. This is how we fight for every soul.”
Yukov spoke of his work in religious terms, saying a body was a soul waiting to go home.
“This is action,” he wrote. “Action every day in the fields, in the forest belts, among the ruins, where your life can end at any moment.”
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Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.
Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Fellow soldiers carry the coffin of Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, during farewell service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Relatives mourn at the coffin of Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, during farewell service in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Priests preside over a farewell ceremony for Oleksiy Yukov, who was fatally wounded while exhuming bodies of killed soldiers in the frontline in Donetsk region, in St. Volodymyr Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
