Thunder in the vicinity meaning
Yukov has been dealing with war dead for more than two decades. «At the same time, it is also in their interest for us to recover the dead.» From World War II to today «It is very difficult to get binding security guarantees from the Russians,» he says. They have been shot at several times despite the clear marking of their car, Yukov recalls. The volunteers are exposed to considerable risk during their trips to the front lines. «One colleague was mentally overwhelmed and had to stop the voluntary work.» «A few weeks ago, there were four of us,» he says. The fact that he was once a martial artist can still be seen on his muscular body. Yukov has an impressive physique and an angular face, and his handshake is memorable. It goes without saying that this is not a job for the faint-hearted. «Then we investigate, search and try to find the corpse.»Ī burned-out car in front of a largely destroyed apartment building in Sloviansk. «We’ve also received calls because a dog ran across a field with an arm in its mouth,» Yukov says. Sometimes it can take weeks before a body is found. Soldiers also sometimes die without their whereabouts being known. In combat, it is not always possible to retrieve the dead. According to Ukrainian sources, the number has since decreased to around 30 fallen soldiers a day. At that time, up to 200 Ukrainian soldiers per day were being killed on the front line. To underscore the need for more heavy weapons, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy provided insight into the high casualty figures in June. However, the Ukrainians have also held back on publishing relevant information for a long time. Moreover, the leadership in Moscow is trying to cover the extent of its own losses. The use of human resources in Russia has always been rather callous. However, it is no secret that Russian military tradition is characterized by a lack of consideration toward the country's own soldiers. The Ukrainian activist is certainly not an impartial observer of the war. «A fallen soldier has lost all usefulness to them,» he says. The Russians, however, have shown much less interest in finding and returning their dead, he notes. DNA tests are carried out as a standard procedure where necessary,» Yukov says. «The Ukrainian Armed Forces are making a great effort. Not all armies place the same importance on recovering and identifying fallen soldiers. Organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross operate large programs to identify war dead and clarify the whereabouts of missing people. It is also vitally important for relatives left behind to have certainty about the fate of their loved ones.
Treating the victims of war in a dignified manner is a binding principle of international humanitarian law. Little consideration for their own soldiers The cargo planes that brought back home fallen soldiers during the Soviet campaign in Afghanistan were popularly called «chorni tjulpan», meaning black tulips.
Like the number 200 on Yukov’s car, the name of his organization is an allusion that needs no explanation in this country.
#Thunder in the vicinity meaning code#
The number 200 is a military code for corpse transporters in the territory of the former Soviet Union. Oleksi Yukov shows the dog tag of a fallen Russian soldier on his phone. «It's not our place to judge the dead,» he says «Fate has already done that. Of course, this also applies to Russians who have been killed, although he says some people around him do not understand why he puts his life in danger to recover the bodies of Russian soldiers. «Returning their bodies to their families to give them a dignified burial is the least we can do for them.» «The fallen sacrificed their lives,» says the 36-year-old. Most humanitarian organizations help the living civilians. With two comrades-in-arms from his «Black Tulip» association, he regularly drives to the front, looks for missing persons and collects the bodies of fallen soldiers. Yukov is among those who want to contribute. Those who still live here as civilians have come to terms with the omnipresence of war: out of fatalism, out of a lack of alternatives, perhaps also because some hope for the arrival of the Russians, or on the contrary, because some want to make a contribution to this struggle.