The true toll of the war in Ukraine is measured in bodies. This man brings them home, one at a time

DOVHENKE, Ukraine (AP) — The smell in the car is sick and sweet, the overpowering scent of corpses that have lain too long in muck and ruin, the ones the dogs didn’t devour. Oleksii Yukov, a 38-year-old martial arts instructor who leads a team of volunteer body collectors in Ukraine, doesn’t notice.

He is on the phone with one of the mothers. She heard her son was injured in battle and left behind, but she’s not sure where.

“He was left to die and now they are telling me that ‘he died as a hero!?’” she says, choking out words between sobs.

“Don’t cry,” Yukov tells her. “Because if you get weak — no one will help him ... Don’t cry in front of anyone! They are not worth it. Cry in front of the grave of your son only.”

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-yukov-attrition-body-collector-43bfc0848fdaa9b36d63abfa8c24f885