Ukraine honors its ‘collector of souls,’ who was killed while recovering the war dead

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine paid tribute on Saturday to Oleksiy Yukov, a volunteer who spent more than two decades recovering the bodies of civilians and soldiers — Ukrainian and Russian alike — killed by war. He was 40.

An Orthodox Christian service was held at the Cathedral of St. Volodymyr in central Kyiv, where thousands gathered to pay their respects after his death in a land-mine explosion during a recovery mission Wednesday.

Mourners also gathered at Kyiv’s main Maidan Square, many dropping to their knees out of respect as his casket was brought to the site. Memorial services were also held in other cities across Ukraine.

Yukov founded the Platsdarm — “bridgehead” — organization because he believed all the dead require a proper burial. He became known as a “collector of souls.”

From the war-torn Donbas region, Yukov was a martial arts instructor. He began recovering the dead as a teenager after encountering the remains of Soviet 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.”

Speaking to the Associated Press, Yukov’s daughter Diana Kaluhyna said the “love and kindness” he showed to grieving families had moved the nation.

“What stayed with me today was the simple truth: He honored the dead and healed the living,” she said. “He offered more than hope; he restored people.”

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.”

Yurchuk and Lukatsky write for the Associated Press. AP writer Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed to this report.