Treatment has progressed, but not nearly enough
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskSergeii Batowslay, a soldier since 2015, says that half of his unit, more than a hundred men, have been killed since the Russian invasion began almost a year ago. On the front you are constantly pumped up and full of aggression, he says, and that takes not just a mental toll but a physical one too, leaving you run down and exhausted.
The centre opened its doors in July and so far some 2,000 soldiers have passed through it. All this is new for Ukraine. Before the first phase of the war in 2014-15, when Russia seized Crimea and supported separatists in Donbas, few who needed to see a psychologist wanted to, says Colonel Vasylkivskiy, because it was akin to admitting to “being crazy”. Until then, psychologists were also, in Ukraine’s inherited Soviet military tradition, part of its political section.
Much has changed since 2014-15. Some soldiers returning from the front with psychological problems, exactly like Western soldiers coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan, have turned to drink and drugs and can become aggressive and violent. As a result, says Colonel Vasylkivskiy, the number of psychologists in the army has been increased by about 40%, and soldiers in training are told not to be shy about turning to them.
Treatment is not expensive. It costs €140 a week to care for a soldier. But under Ukraine’s current rules, though the military budget covers rehabilitation for physical injuries, it does not pay for treatment for. So the costs for the centre are being borne by volunteer organisations. The therapy seems to work; Colonel Vasylkivskiy says that after a week in his centre almost everyone he has treated has been ready to return to the front.
With a million men under arms, for months at a time and enduring gruelling conditions, the colonel says that his one centre is not nearly enough. “We need a hundred,” he says, but adds that they need to be made available for civilians too. That, though, is a whole different, and surely even bigger, problem.
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