Now Reading: Ukraine mourns ‘collector of souls’ volunteer killed recovering war dead
-
01
Ukraine mourns ‘collector of souls’ volunteer killed recovering war dead
Ukraine mourns ‘collector of souls’ volunteer killed recovering war dead
Ukraine held a solemn funeral on Saturday for Oleksiy Yukov, a 40-year-old volunteer who spent over two decades recovering the bodies of civilians and soldiers killed in war. Yukov died on Wednesday…
The Story in Brief
Ukraine held a solemn funeral on Saturday for Oleksiy Yukov, a 40-year-old volunteer who spent over two decades recovering the bodies of civilians and soldiers killed in war. Yukov died on Wednesday in a landmine explosion during a recovery mission in the Donbas region, reports India Today. Thousands gathered at the Cathedral of Saint Volodymyr in Kyiv and at Maidan Square to pay respects, with many kneeling as his casket passed.
Yukov, who founded the organisation Platsdarm (Bridgehead), believed all the dead deserved a proper burial and was known as a 'collector of souls'. His widow Evhenyia Kaluhyna promised through tears to continue his work. Yukov had lost an eye in a 2022 mine blast but returned to the front line. His daughter said he 'honoured the dead and healed the living'. He had rejected calls to leave Russian bodies behind, saying, 'This is how we fight for every soul.'
The Indian Opinion
The usual chatter about Ukraine being a proxy war or a stalemate misses the point of stories like this. A volunteer from the Donbas spent his life bringing dead soldiers, even enemy ones, home for burial. That is not strategy; that is humanity. The question for those who cheer or dismiss this war: would you risk your own life to bury a stranger, let alone a foe? Until that is answered, the moralising can wait.
Sources (2): ndtv.com, indiatoday.in
This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources.
