War and Trauma. The Eastern-Ukrainian Front in the Recollections of Transcarpathian Soldiers

This paper covers reminiscences of mobilised and volunteer soldiers of Transcarpathia on the period they spent in the Eastern-Ukrainian war through narratives and theme-centred interviews. The participants of the research were three volunteer and seven mobilised soldiers previously participating in a compulsory military service. In the case of two volunteers, the main motivations were the establishment of Ukraine opening toward the West and fully independent from Russia which must therefore be protected, and the sense of usefulness; the third volunteer reported as motivation his particular interest in military at an early age, which he considered appropriate to explore in the war. As regards to the lessons learnt from the interviews, it can be concluded that, besides the severe economic and infrastructure damages perceived by the entire population, the greatest victims of the military conflict were the local inhabitants and the soldiers defending Ukraine. According to the interviewees´ statements, Ukraine had not been prepared for the war in any respect, and they were those who had faced the consequences first hand. Six out of the ten interviewees reported posttraumatic stress symptoms, which, although over time to a lesser extent, but are still very much present. In the trauma processing period, family´s help was given a prominent position in four cases. As the interviewees see it, they would have also needed professional (a psychologist´s) help in the treatment of the posttraumatic stress, but it has not been provided them by the state.