Kyiv bids farewell to Oleksiy Yukov, head of the “Platsdarm” search team

The farewell ceremony took place at the Vladimir Patriarchal Cathedral. Yukov’s family, friends, colleagues, and people who knew him through his many years of search and rescue and volunteer work came to pay their respects.

Alexei Yukov was killed on August 5 while on a search mission in the Donetsk region. The group was conducting operations to locate and exhume the bodies of the deceased. While returning from the mission, the vehicle in which Yukov was traveling struck a landmine.

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Yukov had been involved in search and rescue work for over a quarter of a century. After the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, he and his team focused on searching for the remains of fallen Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.

Yukov headed the “Platsdarm” Association of Military-Historical Heritage Researchers, participated in the “Black Tulip” humanitarian mission, and after the start of the full-scale invasion, his team continued its work as part of the “On the Shield” humanitarian project.

Over the years of full-scale war, the search teams have recovered thousands of bodies from combat zones.

“For me, it is a matter of honor to bring back the souls that were lost in these accursed wars,” Yukov said about his work in one of his interviews.

In December 2024, Oleksiy Yukov was awarded the presidential “Golden Heart” medal for his contribution to the volunteer movement and his assistance to Ukraine.

As a reminder, on August 5, it was reported that volunteer Alexei Yukov, who had been searching for the fallen on the front lines since the start of the ATO, was killed on the front lines.