Ukraine: Ten days against the war in your head

Reportage Ukraine Ten days against the war in your head As of: November 1st, 2026 • 9:43 a.m

In the Ukrainian Carpathians, soldiers are trying to get away from the war for a few days. But the memories cannot be easily shaken off.

Ruslan beams. The 44-year-old sits in an inflatable boat that glides across a river in the Ukrainian Carpathians. He is happy about the rapids, about the water splashing into the boat. And about the fact that he has overtaken the others. Even the group leader praised him for it, he says enthusiastically. It's the first time in his life that he's tried rafting.

The fact that Ruslan can laugh so carefree is anything but self-evident. On the river bank he talks about his first real vacation in a long time. In the middle of a sentence his face changes, tears well up in his eyes. “I was in captivity for three and a half years,” he says. "That's why this vacation is good for me now." Until June 2025, the Ukrainian marine was imprisoned in Russian prisons. There he was beaten, humiliated and tortured.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ruslan defended the port city of Mariupol. His unit was attacked at the end of March. A comrade died in his arms. Ruslan reports that he himself was seriously injured and was taken prisoner at the beginning of April 2022. Years followed in which he was abused almost daily, he says.

Ruslan was in Russian captivity for more than three years - a period of constant abuse and humiliation.

For ten days, Ruslan and other Ukrainian soldiers and veterans try to distance themselves from the war in the Carpathians. An aid organization invited them. The program includes hikes, horseback riding, rafting, shared discussions and art therapy.

What sounds largely like a holiday program is a great challenge for many participants: feeling joy again, trusting other people, finding peace at night.

Studies show how deep the war leaves psychological scars: According to a recent study, around two thirds of the Ukrainian soldiers examined in medical and rehabilitation facilities suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Many experienced serious injuries, the death of comrades or Russian captivity. And even far from the front, the war doesn't let them go.

Ruslan says that since his release he has barely been able to fall asleep without sleeping pills. He actually managed to do that on his first nights in the mountains. But then the sleep problems came back. Sometimes he lies awake for hours. Nightmares reminded him of captivity.

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Oleksandr can hardly find peace either. “The memories are constantly in my head,” says the 31-year-old. "Even when you are resting or lying alone, thoughts of the war still run through your mind."

Oleksandr was fighting near Popasna in eastern Ukraine in May 2022 when Russian drones discovered his unit. Shortly afterwards, heavy mortar fire began. Many of his comrades were killed or injured. "We couldn't save many of them," he remembers.

His unit then received the order to withdraw. Oleksandr can no longer remember what happened afterwards. He only regained consciousness in a hospital in Dnipro. His blood loss was life-threatening. The injuries to his right arm were so severe that he was left permanently disabled. He couldn't continue fighting and go back to the army.

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But it's not just his injury that weighs on him. Seven months ago his older brother was killed at the front. After that, Oleksandr says, he withdrew further and further. He could hardly talk about what he had experienced. A friend finally persuaded him to take part in the rehabilitation program.

At first he was skeptical. Some group exercises seemed childish to him. It was only after a few days that he started to open up.

During a hike to a mountain peak, he took a flag with the picture of his killed brother and called his military name into the mountains. The other veterans responded together. Afterwards, Oleksandr says, it became easier for him to speak again.

Injury and loss - the traumatic experiences of the war left Oleksandr silent.

Oksana knows the feeling of being alone with memories and fears. The former soldier served in the Ukrainian 56th Brigade. She is the mother of four children, three sons and a daughter. One of her sons has been missing since 2024. He was 20 years old when his reconnaissance group came under Russian fire in eastern Ukraine. Four soldiers were on the way, three of them have now been buried. There is still no trace of her son to this day.

For months, Oksana says, she searched for information. She called commanders, tried to reach the site of the attack and hoped for information from Russian captivity. Finally she had to admit to herself that she could no longer do anything on her own. “I understood one thing: I am not God,” she says. "I did everything I could do."

For nine months she looked almost exclusively for her son, then started taking antidepressants. Her daughter finally urged her to take a break. Today Oksana lives from prisoner exchange to prisoner exchange. Every time she hopes that her son will be among the freed. At the same time, she tries to prepare for his possible return. Because she knows: If he actually comes home, he will need a mother who has strength again herself.

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One afternoon the veterans receive a visit. Children from the area prepared songs and dances. Many of them know the war from their own families. Many of their fathers or brothers are or were soldiers. Nine-year-old Chrystyna explains why they came: "So that they can be happy. And so that they can have some joy."

The children sing, dance and smile. The adults are watching. Some are visibly moved. Finally, Oleksandr takes the floor, thanks the children and wishes them "that you never have to experience the pain that we had to experience."

It is encounters like these that are intended to help participants regain access to feelings that often have no place in war. The program is organized by the donation-financed aid organization “Ruf des Herzens”. She has been offering such stays since 2015. Founder Tetiana Kostynyuk knows that ten days in the mountains cannot heal years of trauma.

“Our program is not designed to solve individual problems,” she says. This requires long-term, individual treatment. "We inspire them and bring them back to life." The camp cannot replace medical or psychotherapeutic treatment.

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During art therapy, participants paint ceramic plates. Ruslan wants to draw a Cossack, but his hands are shaking. Since his imprisonment, even simple tasks have been difficult for him.

Oleksandr, on the other hand, often thinks about the comrades who did not survive. To young men who will never start a family, have no children and will no longer be able to shape a future. “It hurts a lot,” he says. In addition, there are feelings of guilt because they survived while others died. And the difficulty of returning to everyday civilian life, which often has little in common with their experiences.

In a few days Ruslan, Oleksandr and Oksana will leave the Carpathians and return to their everyday lives. An everyday life in which war is still omnipresent.

This topic in the program: The First | World Mirror | Oct 18, 2026 | 6:30 p.m