Ukraine’s troops get help for PTSD, but then head straight back to brutal trench warfare on front lines
CBS MORNINGS
Kharkiv, Ukraine — A year of intense fighting in Ukraine — often hand-to-hand in muddy trenches, has taken a brutal psychological toll on a military built largely of volunteers. Many Ukrainian soldiers have found help at treatment centers that identify and respond to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
CBS News visited one of the centers, near the front lines in the city of Kharkiv, and found soothing music playing in a room bathed in shifting pastel shades and scented with pleasant aromas like citrus and lavender.
Soldiers come to such places straight from the battlefield, with the horrors of the war still fresh in their minds. While it looks a little like a spa, the center is in fact providing desperately needed psychological first aid to traumatized fighters — and crucially, the therapy is provided during war, instead of after it.