Ukrainian vets and soldiers buoyed by yoga and restorative retreats

Sitting in a coach bus inching across the Ukrainian border, Ostap battled with the organizers of the journey he was on. Maryna Sadykova, who headed the retreat, recalled the young combat medic arguing with her as she sat on yet another bus filled with Ukrainian combat medics on their way to a remote retreat: Why waste money on a recovery retreat for frontline paramedics when drones were so desperately needed to win the war? Why not donate every spare dollar to purchase more weapons for the Ukrainian army?

A medic with the Azov brigade, Ostap had been ordered to go to the retreat by his commanding officer. He hadn’t wanted to leave the frontlines. But just days later — after swimming, painting and attending group therapy sessions with other medics – he turned to Sadykova and said he understood: Mental health is a weapon as well.

Around the same time, in the Ukrainian city of Kyiv, Oleksiy rested on the floor of the yoga studio, moving into his final resting posture a few minutes before his classmates. It had been only one week since he had surgery to prepare his residual left thigh for a new prosthetic and his body was tired. But he was still eager to attend the yoga class he’d been going to for the last five months, at a rehabilitation center for Ukrainian war veterans with complex amputations.

“I do everything that is available here,” says 26-year-old Oleksiy, referencing the programs available at the Tytanovi rehabilitation center. His favorite part of the yoga class: “The end when you lie down. Everyone loves that.” For veterans struggling to sleep at night, due to pain or PTSD, the chance to rest is invaluable.

Oleksiy, who, like Ostap, shared only his first name as is common practice among Ukrainian soldiers, attends class each week with teacher Viktoriya Lukyanenk and half a dozen other veterans. 

“They have a problem with feeling themselves, their mind, soul and body,” Lukyanenk said, explaining that she helps veterans process how they feel after different movements and settle their nervous systems. “Yoga to them is to feel the connection with themselves again.”

These passages are from two new stories for MindSite News by freelance correspondent Cecilia Nowell, who last wrote for us about how an outdoor game called pétanque  lifted the spirits of lonely, older Ukrainians in villages attacked by Russia. Click here to read her stories on the Kyiv yoga class for war amputees and forest retreats for combat medics.

The name “MindSite News” is used with the express permission of Mindsight Institute, an educational organization offering online learning and in-person workshops in the field of mental health and wellbeing. MindSite News and Mindsight Institute are separate, unaffiliated entities that are aligned in making science accessible and promoting mental health globally.