The tragedy of war…

The main material of the issue of The NYT Magazine was a report from the Kiev psychiatric hospital, where the military are undergoing rehabilitation.

“In peacetime, Pavlovka treated people with severe mental illnesses, mainly schizophrenia, but the war forced them to change their specialization. Hospitals in Ukraine cannot cope with the number of psychiatric injuries, while commanders need their military to return. In June last year, a transitional department for 40 beds was opened in Pavlovka, which grew to 100 in six months,” the article says.

The report contains the stories of the fighters. So, one of the military, even a month after the tragedy, cannot speak. His story is given by a doctor:

“There were four of them. They were stationed near the front line, in eastern Ukraine, and that night they shot down a Russian drone from the sky. A small victory. Then its fragments rushed down, pieces of torn metal crashed into the people below,” she reports.

The fighter was the only one who survived then, and he had to hold a position next to the dead all night and the next day. He hasn’t said anything since they found him.

“He’s withdrawn into himself and doesn’t want anything,” the doctor says.

A junior lieutenant named Ruslan has the same dream over and over again: he dives into a trench, but it’s not a trench; it’s a grave. “I would like to lie down in a hole somewhere and hide,” says the fighter.

Ruslan is 45, he is a former builder. He participated in the liberation of the right bank of Kherson, where he was wounded and shell-shocked. He recalls that during the battles they could not sleep and not eat for 5 days.

Many fighters undergoing treatment were specialists in peaceful professions a year ago, the report says.

One soldier says that when he returned from the war zone, he no longer had the opportunity to sleep. Another says he can’t stand the crowds anymore. According to him, he feels at such moments, “like when you go fishing and get entangled in a fishing line.”