"He's in the class, but he isn't fully participating; he's not doing the same exercises as the others, or chatting with them during breaks. Andriy Khrystiuk, 52, only just arrived in Lviv, a big city in western Ukraine, a few days ago. He's a veteran, and trying to recover from wartime mental trauma. Every night Khrystiuk says when he closes his eyes his dreams take him right back to the front"
"Khrystiuk was a sniper in northeastern Ukraine's Kupiansk area until he was injured in an attack in May 2024. His right ribs were broken and his right lung was punctured as armor-piercing bullets went in one side and out the other. Bits of the ceramic plate from his ballistic vest were lodged into his chest. After a long and difficult recovery process, Khrystiuk tried to go home alone. He is divorced and his son was killed in the war."
""Nobody waits for me there. It's emptiness," he says. Occasionally, despite the dangers, he would drive supplies back to Kupiansk, to the front lines, to feel useful. He felt closer to his comrades on the front than to anyone in the community. He was lonely, and struggling to reintegrate into civilian life. Just over a year after his injury, Khrystiuk is staying at a facility with other recovering veterans in Lviv because, he says, his "roof was leaking" a Ukrainian metaphor for being mentally unstable."
A 52-year-old veteran, Andriy Khrystiuk, arrived in Lviv after being wounded as a sniper near Kupiansk in May 2024. He suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and shrapnel from his ballistic vest and endured a long recovery. He experiences traumatic dreams and wakes from combat memories. He lost his son, is divorced, and feels greater connection to comrades than to civilian community, driving supplies back to the front to feel useful. He now stays at a facility for recovering veterans in Lviv and joined the Lviv Habilitation Center as part of rehabilitation efforts.
Read at www.npr.org
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