Dressed in fatigues and trying to ignore the rumble of artillery that echoes in the background, the men walk and inspect the fields and forests of Donetsk.
The city in eastern Ukraine has been the epicenter of some of the bloodiest fighting since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, and the possibility of being caught in the middle of a gunfight is an ongoing fear.
There are about 100 volunteers from the Black Tulip humanitarian organization who, equipped with gloves, shovels, and brushes, perhaps carry out one of the tasks most bleak imaginable within the horror of a war: dig up the bodies of soldiers buried on the battlefront, identify them, and return them to their relatives.
“Every time we dig up one of our boys, I think we are doing something good. Their parents are waiting for them at home,” explains Artur Simeiko, one of the volunteers, in a video about his work, about what he feels when they dig up a soldier ukrainians. “There they can be buried properlyaccording to the tradition of the corresponding rite, whether Christian or any other”.
“They shouldn’t be lying in a forest, or a field, or in the street”, he completes.
The dangers
Added to the logical psychological difficulties of their work are the potential dangers they may encounter. Some bodies are dug up with traces of explosives attached to themand in some cases it is also discovered that they were placed booby traps by burying themwhich requires working with the utmost care to disable them.
Although Tulipán Negro’s work is focused on Ukrainian soldiers, they also seek return the bodies of Russian soldiers that they discover in their excavations. In those cases, what they usually do is try to make an exchange with the Russian forces by bodies of Ukrainians carried in their retreat.
The pain of informing families
One of the most difficult tasks is to inform families that they have recovered the body of one of their loved ones.
The volunteers have received psychology education by the Red Cross, and they have learned how to talk to relatives and give them the news that it is the end of all hope. Contact with family members often begins from the moment the body is unearthed, and continues long after the return is complete and the burial.
For many of the volunteers, the work has become a kind of obligation.
“To those who gave their lives for us. They have done their job. They defended us to the best of their ability. When they die, our job is to help them come home. Unfortunately only as dead, but they still have to go home,” Alexei Yukov, the group’s communications officer, told the German newspaper Taz.
A changing job
The work of Tulipán Negro began as a task with more scientific and archaeological purposes. In the early 2000s, Ukrainian businessman Yaroslav Zhilkin created the organization in order to dig up soldiers buried in Donetsk in World War II, during what was the 22-month occupation of the German Army in the region.
Tasks changed drastically with the beginning of the Donbas War, in 2014, the conflict between Russian separatist groups and the Ukrainian government that can be considered the germ of the current war.
From looking for bones from bodies that died 60 years ago, the volunteers had to go look for recent corpses, with current uniforms and weapons, many of which could still be recognized by their facial features.
The Russian invasion that began in February 2022 brought with it a worsening of the conditions that began in 2014. There is not only more fighting, with more modern and powerful weapons, but there are also more deaths. The losses, on both sides, are significantly higher than those seen 9 years ago.
The fundamental difference, however, is the complete absence of communication between both sides. Although in 2014 there was hostility from the Russian troops, it was still possible to reach agreements to advance into enemy territory and fulfill the task of rescuing the bodies. In 2022, this option no longer exists.
When it comes to knowing where to go in search of mass graves or improvised cemeteries, the volunteers collaborate with specialists from the Ukrainian Emergency Situations Service, as well as with the police and the Army.
When they get to a place, first they talk to the local civilians, who recount the details of the fighting that took place there. Finally, they tour the area with the aim of detecting the presence of possible explosives and deactivating them before proceeding to search for the bodies.
WWII Remains
Even amid the sea of bodies they are currently discovering (the organization does not reveal how many they have rescued during the current conflict), volunteers continue to find remains of fallen soldiers in World War IIas well as grenades and weapons of that time.
“We found identifying signs on each side. The Germans had coins and items of Army clothing, while the Soviets they have distinctive stars and some documents,” details the volunteer Oleksii Iukov.
The unearthed bones are placed in bags to be transported along with the bodies of soldiers killed in the current conflict, who begin the journey to see if they can identify them.
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