The Power of Two: Healing In Times Of War, Together
As of February 2025, Ukraine has recorded over 390,000 cases of wounded soldiers, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Many of these defenders return to the front after recovering—some more than once—so the actual number of individuals wounded is lower, but the toll remains staggering. Thousands return home with life-altering injuries that reshape not only their futures, but the lives of their families as well. Having gone through hospitals, physical rehabilitation programs, and painful adjustments to a new reality, the veterans are also dealing with invisible wounds of psychological trauma, guilt, and disconnection. They come home as heroes, but the war doesn’t automatically go away. It lingers in the silent distance between them and the people they love. For many, reintegration is a battle of its own. Relationships suffer. Connections break. Emotional walls go up. People who once knew how to reach and support each other now feel confused and isolated. The statistics are sobering: one in three military marriages ends after demobilization, and nearly one in five veterans lives alone. These breakdowns often stem from the emotional trauma of war, combined with the lack of adequate family-centered support. In fact, 70% of surveyed veterans said they need access to rehabilitation with their children and loved ones, and nearly 33% wished for joint psychological programs—yet as of early 2024, only 4.3% had access to them. Viktoriia Drach, the Nova director in Ukraine, highlighted that this issue is not unique to Ukraine:
