Psychologist and war veteran Pylyp Dukhliy conducted a study on the psychological state of Ukrainians amid the war and found that civilian men are the worst off in terms of neurotic depression, and divorced and unmarried men are the worst off in terms of marital status. He spoke about this in an interview with Hromadske.
If we compare the first survey in September 2022 and the third one in December 2024, we can identify three main changes. Firstly, the military on the front line and the second line have become much worse off. Whereas previously their indicators were relatively stable and even better than those of other categories of the population, they have now gone down. This indicates exhaustion.
Secondly, starting from the second wave of the survey, the performance of civilian men has significantly deteriorated. ‘I can assume that this is due to the intensification of mobilisation and the threat of conscription. It causes a lot of anxiety and worry. Those who wanted to join the army have already left. There are still those who are either afraid, unwilling, or simply not ready to change their lifestyle. This creates an additional level of tension,’ says Dukhliy.
The situation of civilian women has also become slightly worse, although it has been difficult since the beginning of the full-scale war. At the same time, the situation of Ukrainians abroad has begun to improve, which means that people are gradually adapting.
The researcher notes that the psychological state of the military is more difficult to assess than that of civilians. When a person is in extreme conditions, psychological defences are activated. The psyche postpones living through traumatic events until later, because now it needs to survive. That’s why the military may have better performance, but in reality it’s not. A study has shown that soldiers after demobilisation feel worse than those who remain on the front line.
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