Oleksiy Yukov, the leader of the "Platsdarm" search and rescue team from Sloviansk, has been killed

Alexei Yukov, head of the “Platsdarm” Association of Military-Historical Heritage Researchers, has died. He devoted more than 25 years to searching for and recovering the remains of the fallen. 

Since his teenage years, Yukov had been involved in the search for and exhumation of the remains of soldiers—both Soviet and German—and since 2014, his team had been working directly in combat zones, including Sloviansk, Debaltseve, and Ilovaisk. 

The search team collaborated with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the humanitarian project “On the Shield,” repatriating the bodies of Ukrainian defenders and civilians. The group also searched for the remains of Russian servicemen for future exchanges.

His wife, Yevgeniya Kalugina, announced his death on Facebook.

Earlier, arm-wrestling champion Ihor Hladkyi was killed on the front lines.

Dmytro Hladirenko, a saxophonist from Chernihiv, was killed on the front lines.