A body collector hides victims in danger of their lives

At the front in the Donbass, Olexi Yukov, at risk of death, hides the bodies of fallen soldiers. He wants to give the relatives certainty and enable the dead to have a dignified burial.

Even the number plate reveals what Olexi Yukow is transporting in his white refrigerated truck. Instead of a usual Ukrainian license plate made up of numbers and letters, the plate only has the number 200.

The same three digits are also inscribed on the sides of the van, each next to a large red cross. “Grus dvesti”, which means “cargo two hundred” in English, is a military code that is widely understood in the territory of the former Soviet Union: Olexi Yukov transports the bodies of fallen soldiers.

War is omnipresent

Yukov lives in Sloviansk, a gray industrial city in the north of the Donetsk region, the part that is still held by Ukrainian troops. The front is almost 20 kilometers away. The thunder of the artillery is a constant companion throughout the day. Sometimes, mostly at night, Russian shells hit urban areas. In one of the most serious hits, a school and some residential buildings were completely destroyed. Several people were killed.

Russian advance area

Pro-Russian separatist areas

Anyone who still lives here as a civilian has come to terms with the omnipresence of war: out of fatalism, because there is no alternative, perhaps also because one hopes for the Russians to arrive, or on the contrary, because one somehow wants to make a contribution to this fight.

Yukov belongs to the last group. With two fellow campaigners from his Black Tulip association, he regularly drives his car to the front, looks for missing persons and collects the bodies of fallen soldiers. Most humanitarian organizations help the living. Yukov helps the dead.

“You can’t judge the dead”

“The fallen gave their lives,” says the 36-year-old. “Bringing their bodies back to their families and giving them a dignified burial is the least we can do for them.”

Of course, this also applies to killed Russians, although some people around him do not understand why he puts his life in danger to recover the bodies of Russian soldiers. “You can’t judge the dead. Fate has already done that. Everyone is entitled to a grave.”

Oleksi Yukov shows the dog tag of a fallen Russian soldier on his phone. The number 200 is a military code for corpse transporters in the territory of the former Soviet Union.

Like the number 200 on Yukov’s car, the name of his organization is an allusion that needs no explanation in this country. The cargo planes that brought home soldiers who died during the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan were popularly known as “chorni tjulpan”, meaning black tulip.

Ruthless towards own soldiers

Treating the victims of war with dignity is a mandatory principle of international humanitarian law. It is also of central importance for the relatives to have certainty about the fate of their loved ones. Organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross run large programs to identify war dead and clarify the whereabouts of missing people.

However, the recovery and identification of fallen soldiers is not of the same importance in all armies. “The Ukrainian armed forces are making a great effort. Where necessary, DNA tests are carried out as standard,” says Jukow. The Russians, however, showed much less interest in finding and bringing back their dead. “A fallen soldier has lost all use to them.”

The Ukrainian activist is certainly not an impartial observer of the war. However, it is no secret that the Russian military tradition is characterized by ruthlessness towards its own soldiers. Dealing with human resources has always been wasteful in Russia. In addition, the leadership in Moscow is trying to blur the extent of its own losses.

The Ukrainian side also kept the relevant information covered for a long time. However, in June, to underscore the need for more heavy weapons, an aide to President Zelensky provided insight into the high casualty figures. Accordingly, up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers are said to have died at the front every day. The number has since dropped to around 30 a day, according to Ukrainian sources.

Nothing for the faint-hearted

In combat, it is not always possible to salvage the dead. Soldiers also die without their whereabouts being known. Sometimes it can take weeks before a body is found. “We’ve already received calls because a dog ran across the field with an arm in its mouth,” says Yukov. “Then we’ll go out and look for the dead man.”

Many civilians have now left the Sloviansk.  The city is in the immediate vicinity of the front and is repeatedly hit by Russian shells.

Many civilians have now left the Sloviansk. The city is in the immediate vicinity of the front and is repeatedly hit by Russian shells.

A burnt-out car is parked in front of a largely destroyed residential building in Sloviansk.

A burnt-out car is parked in front of a largely destroyed residential building in Sloviansk.

It goes without saying that this is not work for the faint-hearted. Yukov is a man like a tree, with an angular face and a handshake that is not easily forgotten. You can still tell from his muscular body that he was once a martial artist. “Until a few weeks ago there were four of us,” he says. “It became too much for a colleague and he got out.”

The volunteers take a considerable risk on their trips to the front. Despite the clear marking of their car, they have been shot at several times, says Yukov. «It is very difficult to get binding security guarantees from the Russian side. But it should also be in their interest if we recover the dead.”

From World War to the present

Yukov has been studying war dead for more than two decades. As a teenager, he and his brother found the remains of fallen soldiers in a forest not far from his hometown. The Sloviansk area was heavily contested during World War II.

“At first I was sure that we had found the bones of German soldiers,” he says. “As a child, I could not have imagined that the Red Army would bury their dead so carelessly.” Since then, he has been fascinated by the fact that the remains of thousands of nameless dead still lie on the battlefields.

When war reached Sloviansk again eight years ago, Yukov wanted to help ensure that no more nameless dead remained behind. Sloviansk came under the control of pro-Russian rebels in April 2014. In July, the Ukrainian army managed to recapture the city. In between there was heavy fighting. Whenever he heard from soldiers or the local population where the dead lay, Yukov drove there in the white refrigerated truck and collected them.

Search on Youtube

Since then, the organization has taken more than 300 bodies from the front and handed them over to the authorities. The identification and notification of the relatives is carried out according to clear guidelines and by official bodies. The Russian corpses are kept for possible exchange. Since the outbreak of the war, the two warring factions have already exchanged casualties several times.

With his commitment, Oleksi Julkow would like to enable the fallen soldiers to have a dignified burial.

With his commitment, Oleksi Julkow would like to enable the fallen soldiers to have a dignified burial.

However, Yukov also tries to identify the dead in his own way. He runs a YouTube channel on which he shows photos of documents and sometimes of the dead themselves so that relatives can search for missing relatives. He can do that as a private person, says Yukov, indirectly admitting that this approach is quite controversial. It hardly corresponds to the current standards for the protection of personality.

However, most of the feedback is positive, says Yukow. Inquiries were also coming from Russia. “Nothing is worse for relatives than uncertainty. In addition, these images show the true face of war: misery, madness and death.”

source site-111