In the war in Ukraine, soldiers are using drugs to relieve pain, suppress fear and anxiety or simply to be able to function. This "self-medication" is becoming an increasingly big problem.
Ukrainian soldiers are increasingly resorting to taking drugs to deal with trauma on the front. Fighters tell DW correspondent Max Zander that they use methadone and painkillers to cope with fear, exhaustion and untreated injuries.
"In war, you see severed arms, severed legs, you smell the whole bad smell and everything else. "It's an extremely difficult emotional state," says Dmytro, a Ukrainian marine lieutenant who is treating his addiction - currently undergoing rehabilitation. "If you've never taken drugs in your life, you start using them at the front," he assures. For him, it all started after his first wound - in the arm, the officer says.
Stanislav, who fought in Zaporozhye before fleeing his combat unit, is also recovering from drug use. He says that methadone helped him forget where he was for a while, distance himself from all the horror and constant anxiety.
"And then it turned into an addiction..."
"You're constantly tense, you don't get enough sleep, the overload is huge. I've never served in the army before, and for me it was extremely stressful. And methadone gave me strength, without it I couldn't cope anymore, I couldn't even get out of bed. And then it turned into an addiction."
Dmitry commanded a unit of about 200 fighters. He remembers well how one day reinforcements arrived in the battalion and that very day one of the new soldiers went to the front. And he never came back - he was killed on his first combat mission. – We went to them, everyone was sitting and they weren't sober. I made them sit at the table to talk. At that time we had very heavy losses and the guys couldn't cope with the situation psychologically. Then they brought me a bag of methadone tablets - there must have been 500 or 700, I don't know exactly. Of course, I confiscated the pills and told them not to do such things."
But he himself needed painkillers, and he knew that methadone had the same effect, but with a different effect. So he started taking two or three pills at a time until he reached the point where he could no longer control himself. And gradually he realized that he had to do something.
Four years after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports indicate that the use of stimulants and opioids is increasing - to cope with the consequences of the war. According to Viktoriya Timoshevska of the organization Health Solutions, which studies drug use in peacetime and wartime, more than half of those on the front lines are likely to have experienced such experiences - it can be drugs, but also alcohol, and sometimes a combination of both or even a combination of several active substances and alcohol.
According to Timoshevska, this case is not about drug abuse, but often everything starts as self-medication due to the condition they are in.
Igor Alferov is a psychotherapist and military chaplain. He tells DV that in modern history no army has fought for four years without rotation. "These people return with changed biochemistry. And nothing interests them anymore - neither family, nor home, nor work, nor career. They are used to danger, they realize that every day could be their last, and drugs suppress these feelings. And then this becomes a problem."
He further talks about the extremely hard work of the assault brigades and the fact that during a mission no drugs are used - absolutely none. But when the fighters return, their psyche relaxes and some resort to some kind of doping.
"They are exposed to physical traumas that accumulate and unleash severe pain that is often not treated with common medications, such as ibuprofen or paracetamol. And they are looking for other effective means of controlling pain, because they have to return to duty and participate in missions," says Aleferov.
Soldiers have taken drugs in the past too
Drugs have long been a part of warfare. During World War II, Nazi Germany distributed millions of methamphetamine tablets to its troops. In the US army, pilots were given stimulants such as "Dexedrine" - from World War II to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Vietnam, up to 15% of US soldiers used heroin - to cope with the effects of the war.
For a long time, Ukraine's military leadership did not recognize drug abuse as a problem. Government support for soldiers struggling with substance abuse was only recently included in Ukraine's veterans' strategy - as a pilot project.
Drug use remains strictly prohibited in the armed forces. Soldiers who are caught can face severe punishment. If drugs are found during an autopsy, families risk losing their right to state benefits.
"The unofficial practice is that if it does not affect your ability to perform your duties and participate in missions and operations, it is tolerated. This means that they turn a blind eye, as long as you are in line, report for duty and perform the tasks assigned to you," Victoria Timoshevska from Health Solutions tells DV.
Today, Stanislav is a volunteer - he talks to people and tries to somehow understand them. "There is a saying: When you are drowning, you have to save yourself. I want to teach them how to swim and convince them that this is possible – that is exactly what I am doing right now," says the former serviceman, discharged from military service by a military medical commission due to his impaired health.
"Ukraine is my country and I will live here. I want to be able to cross the street without being afraid that someone who ran a red light will hit me. I want to talk to people, look them in the eye, without being afraid that someone will turn around, pull out a gun and start shooting. I have two little granddaughters. I don't want them to marry sick people, but normal people. And finally, I want these people to come back and not be a "problem" for my country, but its pride," says Stanislav.