Ukraine's hidden tragedy: Rising soldier suicides and family struggles

WISE NEWS PRESS / KYIV, UKRAINE — DEC. 17, 2025

As the conflict in Ukraine continues, a growing number of soldiers are succumbing to psychological exhaustion, leading to a wave of suicides that remain largely undocumented by official state statistics.

While President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has acknowledged over 46,000 military deaths, the number of soldiers who have taken their own lives is shrouded in silence and social stigma. Under current Ukrainian law, suicide is classified as a "non-combat loss," which means bereaved families are denied the financial compensation, military honors, and public recognition granted to those killed in direct action. Human rights advocates believe the actual toll could reach into the hundreds, yet the government continues to treat these as isolated incidents.

The weight of social stigma

Families such as Katerina’s and Mariyana’s describe a painful lack of support from both the state and society. "The state took my son, sent him to war, and brought me a body in a bag," says Katerina, whose son Orest was drafted despite severe vision impairment. Mariyana, whose husband Anatoliy died by suicide after witnessing brutal combat in Bakhmut, expresses a deep sense of betrayal: "I gave them my husband, and they left me alone and helpless". This stigma often extends to religious and local communities, with some churches refusing funeral services and towns omitting these soldiers from memorial walls.

Calls for military mental health reform

Olha Reshetilova, Ukraine’s military ombudsman, admits that about four suicide cases are reported monthly, acknowledging that the current system is insufficient to handle the mental health crisis. She emphasizes that even the strongest minds can collapse after witnessing the horrors of war and calls for a specialized school of military psychology. Support organizations, currently helping around 200 affected families, are lobbying for legislative changes to ensure that soldiers who die by suicide are honored as heroes and their families receive equal rights.

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Source : BBC