On 8 August, Kyiv held a farewell ceremony for fallen serviceman Oleksiy Yukov, head of the Platsdarm search unit.
The ceremony took place at St. Volodymyr’s Cathedral.
The memorial service for Yukov was led by Metropolitan Epiphanius, head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. After the service, the farewell continued at Independence Square.
Yukov was killed in Donetsk Region on 5 August. As Suspilne reports, the vehicle he was traveling in hit a mine in the Lyman community.
- Oleksiy Yukov was from Slovyansk in Donetsk Region.
- Before the start of Russia’s aggression, he searched for the remains of soldiers killed in World War I and World War II.
- Since 2014, he had been searching for and evacuating the bodies of those killed in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
- His Platsdarm search unit cooperated with the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s humanitarian project On the Shield and worked in the hottest areas of the front, including near Ilovaysk, Debaltseve, the Bakhmut sector, and other locations.
- His group also evacuated the bodies of civilians and Russian servicemen for subsequent exchanges.
- On 8 August, a petition to award Yukov the title Hero of Ukraine collected the signatures required for consideration.