In Ukraine, the Tulipe Noire association takes care of recovering the bodies of soldiers killed in combat in the Donbass. Ukrainian victims of course, but also Russians, to have the bodies repatriated to their families.
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“Here it is written: search for the dead”, stands for Oleksii Yukov. In front of the Sloviansk station, his white vehicle is stamped with a red cross and the number 200: the code which designates the dead on the battlefield and which dates back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
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It is a thankless but essential task that the Ukrainian association Tulipe Noire takes on. For six months, Oleksii and his team have been traveling the roads of Donbass to recover the bodies of soldiers mown down by bombing: 400 since the start of the war, including Russian soldiers. “We found a lot of them, we returned around a hundred”, he says. On his mobile, Oleksii shows a photo of a medallion, “it’s a Wagner”Russian mercenaries deployed in Ukraine. “They were carrying out sabotage actions. They mined houses and were discovered. A fight broke out and the whole group was killed”, says Oleksii. It returns the bodies of Russian soldiers to the Ukrainian forces, with a view to exchanging them for the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers. “From what I know, the exchange takes place on the road between two villages, on both sides of the front in the neutral zone”he explains.
Oleksii doesn’t want to be told about work, but rather about a mission. “All people must be buried with dignity, even if they are our enemies. We do not make war on the dead”he says.
“I would like people to return safe and sound, but unfortunately they are dying. And we are coming to recover not only the bodies but also their souls.”
Oleksii Yukovat franceinfo
Of course, we had to toughen up because the bodies are sometimes in poor condition, even unrecognizable. But Oleksii clings to an idea: “When you know the body is going back to its family, it helps not to go crazy.” The madness of war, Oleksii rubs shoulders with it every day because of a man, Vladimir Putin, he adds, his eyes black, as if hatred suddenly caught up with him.