UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, Jul. 20 — Oleksii Yukov, the head of the Platsdarm team, who was killed after driving onto the Russian mine during one of his search mission on Aug. 5, was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine, said Serhii Hnezdilov, a soldier and an activist.

According to his wife, Yevheniia, the document conferring the title has already been signed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine. But the decree has not yet been published on the official website.

Platsdarm is a volunteer search, recovery, and repatriation group, which, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, searched for bodies of fallen Ukrainian and Russian soldiers in the frontline area and evacuated them.

Oleksii Yukov has been searching for fallen soldiers for more than 20 years. Before the Russia-Ukraine war started, he was looking for the bodies of those killed during World War II and World War I.

In 2025, Gwara Media journalists traveled with Oleksii and Platsdarm team to the border of Kharkiv and Donetsk regions to document the search, identification, and evacuation of human remains.

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