President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree posthumously awarding the title of Hero of Ukraine to Oleksiy Yukov — the founder and head of the search team "Platsdarm" (Plazhdarm), who died while carrying out a mission to evacuate the bodies of defenders. As reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing the live broadcast of the award ceremony held during the Independence Day celebrations, the decree was signed on August 21, 2026. The citation for the award notes "civic courage displayed during the implementation of measures to ensure the defense of Ukraine, an outstanding personal contribution to preserving the memory of the fallen defenders of Ukraine, and selfless service to the Ukrainian people."
Circumstances of death
Oleksiy Yukov died on August 5, 2026, in the Lyman community of Donetsk Oblast. According to information provided by the Sloviansk military administration, the vehicle he was returning in from the mission hit a mine. Thus, the head of the search unit did not die in combat, but on the way back after completing the work of retrieving bodies from the combat zone — on the same front of memory to which he had devoted nearly three decades.
27 years searching for the missing
Yukov devoted 27 years of his life to searching for the bodies of fallen and missing military personnel. He was the one who founded the Association of Researchers of Military-Historical Heritage "Platsdarm". Until 2014, the group was engaged in searching, exhuming, and reburial of soldiers who fell during World War I and World War II. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the unit redirected its efforts to the front line: it searched for the bodies of fallen Ukrainian and Russian military personnel, as well as civilians, and was involved in their evacuation from the combat zone.
The path to the title: from petition to decree
The initiative to award Yukov came from citizens: Ukrainians created a petition for him to be granted the title of Hero of Ukraine, which gathered the required number of votes — more than 25,000 signatures. The formal decision followed a few weeks after the search team member's death: the decree was signed on August 21, and the award was presented publicly during the ceremony marking Ukraine's Independence Day. On the same day, according to RBC-Ukraine, the president also awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to the commander of the Third Army Corps, Brigadier General Andriy Belets'kyi.
The scale of "Platsdarm's" work
During its operations, the search team "Platsdarm" evacuated nearly four thousand bodies of the fallen. For an organization working under conditions of active combat and mine-explosive hazards, this is a measure of systematic, years-long work that Yukov personally led. His death by a mine on the way back from a mission was, in essence, a continuation of the same risk that the unit took daily, returning bodies from the front line.
