‘We need to be heard’: Ukrainian soldiers struggle with post-traumatic stress

Therapists are helping veterans, as well as families and children, who are psychologically affected by the war

Volodomyr Kucherenko's problems with post-traumatic stress began not with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, but eight years ago when the war began in the Donbas. In the midst of what was supposed to be a truce, he was resting with his unit, which included his brother-in-law, when they were mortared in the yard of a village house.

Injured in the leg during the first strike, his brother-in-law threw himself over Kucherenko to protect him from shrapnel as more rounds came in. The wounds he sustained protecting his comrade would prove fatal.