Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his homeland, Vladyslav Sentiakov harbored straightforward ambitions: he envisioned building a family, establishing a stable household, and serving as a steady provider for his loved ones. To protect those aspirations and contribute to the defense of his country, the florist from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv made the decisive choice to volunteer for military service.
Reflecting on that pivotal juncture, Sentiakov recalled that the day he formally signed his military contract felt like a sudden intake of fresh air. It felt, he said, like a breath of freedom and the genuine start of an entirely new chapter in his life. He began his service assigned to a patrol battalion and subsequently took on several different operational roles as the trajectory of the war shifted and intensified.
Yet, the prolonged demands and psychological toll of frontline service eventually left Sentiakov grappling with clinical-level anxiety. Recognizing the need for professional intervention, he reached out for assistance through the Heart of Azovstal, a dedicated non-governmental organization that provides veterans with comprehensive medical assistance, professional retraining, educational opportunities, and holistic physical and mental rehabilitation services.
As Sentiakov began working closely with his assigned psychologist, he also agreed to participate in an ongoing pilot study evaluating a new patient-tracking system known as Healthy Mind. The digital platform is currently being rigorously tested ahead of a planned nationwide rollout designed to modernize and streamline psychological support across Ukraine.
At the very beginning and again at the conclusion of his therapy sessions, Sentiakov filled out digital surveys designed to systematically track his symptom scores over time. He is just one of more than 4,500 patients who have taken part in the program so far. The initiative aims to significantly bolster psychological diagnostics, standardize clinical practices, and improve systemic mental health interventions for those affected by the conflict.
The project operates as one of several vital partner platforms contributing to the broader implementation of Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska’s ambitious nationwide mental health program, titled "How Are You?" That comprehensive campaign was officially launched in March 2023 as an all-Ukrainian mental health initiative established in close partnership with international organizations, including the World Health Organization and USAID. The campaign coordinates a wide array of programs across various branches of the Ukrainian government, with the overarching goal of making professional psychological support accessible to every resident throughout the country.
Zelenska, who built a successful career as a television writer prior to the election of her husband, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to the presidency, has consistently utilized her high public profile to champion a diverse range of critical social issues. These include improving accessibility and creating barrier-free environments, introducing healthier and more nutritious meal options in public institutions, actively promoting Ukrainian culture on the international stage, and expanding mental health education.
According to the official website of the President of Ukraine, the "How Are You?" campaign aims to actively promote the formation of a societal culture that prioritizes caring for one’s mental health. Maintaining psychological well-being is widely recognized as essential to the population’s fundamental ability to adapt, function, and develop while enduring the pressures of an active war. Furthermore, the emotional solidarity among Ukrainian citizens is viewed as equally crucial to the country’s long-term prospects for post-war recovery and national resilience.
Despite these concerted governmental and organizational efforts, the psychological burden on the population remains immense. Recent data from a 2025 survey conducted by the World Health Organization indicates that approximately 70 percent of Ukrainian adults currently report symptoms of mental health distress. However, despite the widespread nature of these psychological challenges, only about one in five respondents stated that they had actively sought professional help.
Reflecting on his personal journey through recovery and his enduring aspirations, Sentiakov remains remarkably steadfast. Despite everything that has happened and the challenges he has had to navigate, he notes that he is still actively working toward the very same personal goals he held before the war began.
Digital Technology Paints a Distinct Picture
The operational reality on the ground presents severe logistical hurdles for mental health professionals striving to meet unprecedented public demand. Daryna Romanovska, a psychologist who leads the psychological department of the Healthy Mind initiative, points out that the ongoing war has simultaneously increased the acute need for psychological assistance while making the delivery of those essential services significantly harder.
The strains on the nation’s healthcare infrastructure are both palpable and worsening. A verified study released by the World Health Organization documented more than 3,000 separate attacks on healthcare facilities and personnel in Ukraine over the course of more than 1,534 days of full-scale war.
Given more than four and a half years of relentless conflict, spending precious time with a qualified specialist has become an increasingly scarce commodity. This severe shortage prompted Ukraine’s Ministry of Health to explore innovative ways to minimize the administrative burden of initial intake questionnaires and data collection that typically consume valuable minutes during initial clinical consultations.
By effectively freeing up clinicians from these initial bureaucratic hurdles, the new digital program empowers healthcare providers to focus their energy and expertise on the most critical aspects of therapy. These include exercising clinical judgment, building a strong and trusting therapeutic relationship, developing a personalized care plan, and delivering the actual psychotherapy needed for healing.
Before attending a consultation, clients complete the digital assessment independently, answering a comprehensive series of questions distributed across 55 validated psychodiagnostic scales. The data gathered from these digital entries establishes a reliable baseline for assessment throughout the entire duration of therapy. Subsequent follow-up assessments are then utilized to track patient progress using clear, quantitative measures.
The Healthy Mind system is designed to seamlessly complement information gathered during the traditional clinical interview, including a person’s detailed medical and personal history, their immediate life context, and the professional clinician’s independent judgment. The program is currently slated for formal recommendation by Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, aligning closely with a broader national buildout of professional certification and development aimed at reinforcing the healthcare system’s capacity to address mounting psychological needs.
The project team recently concluded a successful pilot study involving 533 military veterans through the Heart of Azovstal NGO. Following their initial diagnostics, 256 of those participants completed follow-up testing, revealing measurable and significant improvement over the course of the structured program.
The diagnostic data collected during the initiative underscored the severe psychological toll exacted by the conflict. Among the participants, 34 percent reported symptoms consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder—a figure that stands at roughly ten times higher than typical peacetime norms. Additionally, the data showed 47 percent of respondents reporting high levels of stress, while 23 percent experienced clinical-level anxiety.
The relentless pressures of the war have catalyzed technological innovation, transforming it into a core facet of Ukraine’s broader national resilience and defense strategy. The government’s Diia Digital State initiative, which successfully offers streamlined digital portals for a wide variety of government services, public administration, and education, was initially launched in 2019. Such rapid technological advances catapulted Ukraine’s ranking on United Nations assessments of digital government services from 122nd in the world up to third place.
Romanovska notes that bolstering Ukraine’s national mental health system with individual-level progress tracking fits naturally into the broader trajectory of the nation’s digital transformation. She emphasizes that the strategy relies on using modern digital tools to effectively scale access to essential services, standardize bureaucratic and clinical processes, collect and analyze critical data, and support informed decision-making at all levels.
Focus on Individuals’ Direct Experience
In contemporary Ukraine, drawing a hard line between the post-traumatic stress experienced by civilians and the psychological conditions faced by soldiers returning from the battlefield is often impossible. Romanovska explains that the fundamental core of the disorder remains largely the same regardless of background: individuals suffer from repeatedly reliving traumatic experiences, actively avoiding reminders of those events, carrying a persistent sense of ongoing threat, enduring severely disrupted sleep, and suffering significant emotional and cognitive changes.
Natalia Shevchenko, a project manager at the Heart of Azovstal NGO, emphasizes that the critical characteristics defining these psychological struggles are rooted in the specific nature, duration, and repetitive frequency of the traumatic experiences endured. Across Ukraine, countless civilians are exposed directly to the horrors of war on a daily basis, frequently through Russia’s near-constant missile and drone attacks targeting densely populated cities and civilian infrastructure.
Civilians routinely endure prolonged and repeated traumatic events, including heavy shelling, military occupation, captivity, the sudden loss of loved ones, the complete destruction of their homes, forced displacement, agonizing separation from family members, and a pervasive, lingering uncertainty about the future. Emerging psychological literature examining the situation in Ukraine paints a distinct picture that diverges significantly from recent historical conflicts.
For context, military studies following past conflicts showed that approximately one in five American service members returning home from deployments in Afghanistan exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, with the strongest single predictor of symptoms being direct combat exposure. A more relevant contemporary comparison, however, is often drawn to the psychological impact experienced by the Israeli population following the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023, and the subsequent regional war.
Those severe national shocks resulted in an estimated 30,000 new cases of post-traumatic stress disorder among the most heavily traumatized individuals, with roughly 500,000 Israelis considered at elevated risk for developing the disorder. Nevertheless, variations in sampling methods and specific study criteria make direct statistical comparisons across recent global conflicts inherently difficult.
Ultimately, the unique combination of factors defining Ukraine’s situation—including a prolonged, full-scale conventional war, mass internal displacement, and systematic targeted strikes on civilian infrastructure—does not lend itself to direct extrapolation with past conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Israel. Shevchenko notes that prolonged and repeated traumatic experiences, regardless of whether a person is a civilian or a soldier, significantly elevate the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, while healthcare systems in post-conflict periods consistently find themselves running short of the vital resources required to adequately cover the need.
Despite these severe resource constraints, Ukraine’s established status as a global leader in digital technology is helping to chart a unique path forward, shaping how both civilians and veterans confront the deep psychological toll of war.
Reflecting on his recovery and the broader availability of care, Sentiakov expresses cautious optimism about the path ahead. He notes that he genuinely believes the healthcare system is capable of helping those in need, emphasizing that the most crucial step for anyone struggling is simply to reach out and ask for the support they require. Having successfully completed his course of therapy with his psychologist, his symptoms are now much more manageable, leaving him feeling empowered to move forward with his life.
His core life goals, he affirms, remain just as important to him today as they always were.
