Ukraine sends psychologists to help the soldiers under unrelenting stress and exhaustion on the frontlines as the war drags on. 

Donbas

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

Psychological support for Ukrainian soldiers in wartime

For these soldiers on a training ground behind the front lines, it's not just fighting on the schedule today. Right here, on the shooting range, Oleg Hukovsky, the brigade psychologist, has scheduled a session on mental health. The soldiers practice fighting here, so the nervous system is already at an elevated excitement level. And that is a good environment to train certain habits. One last shot fired, then the unit moves to a spot off the shooting range for some physical moves. Let's do a few exercises of self-regulation. Sit lightly on the spot and shake your body. Just move and relax your body. Every brigade in the Ukrainian army is supposed to have a psychological support team. That would be NATO standard. But many of the posts have remained unfilled. There aren't many specialists in the country. Oleg Hukovsky was a practicing psychiatrist and therapist before the war. Now he helps soldiers deal with exhaustion and stress. A long exhale calms down the nervous system. It tells the body that it's time to relax and that everything is fine. When I had panic attacks, I found that breathing exercises really helped. You feel an inexplicable influx of stress, and you don't understand what's happening. But when you manage to breathe calmly, it passes. I inhaled, exhaled and went back to fighting. Oleg Hukovsky started working with the army in 2014, when he was rehabilitating traumatized soldiers as they returned to civil life. He does offer individual sessions here, but it's very different from what he did before. I don't work here as a trauma therapist. I don't dig out trauma. Some of the PTSD symptoms are actually just combat habits. A sudden rise of stress, excessive vigilance, even nightmares, superficial sleep — these help you not to forget where you are. They might be painful, but they also motivate you. His aim is to help the soldiers to continue to function, to give them, as he puts it, the resources to stabilize. Acceptance of the program varies. This is not a movie. We don't perceive our job emotionally. We just fight. This is a war. Everybody needs support. Many hide their emotions. They say that they are not afraid, but in the end we are humans. You can't hide these emotions forever. Many of them will have to deal with their trauma after the war. For now, their task is to carry on.

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Rio Grande

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Canberra

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Ensenada

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Kyiv

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Surrey

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Zaporizhzhia

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Council of the City of Sydney

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Bogotá

Israel-Gaza War

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Ukraine Invasion