The psychological consequences of the Ukraine war : What we know, and what we have to learn

Invited Editorial

On 24th February 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine and launched an unprovoked and illegal war, which independent experts have concluded represents an intended genocide.1 The people of Ukraine will surely have experienced horror at the real and immediate threat to their lives, the lives of their loved ones, and to the existence of their nation. In a country of 44 million people, more than 7 million people have been forced to move to another country and another 8 million people have been internally displaced.2 This occurred in the context of nearly 2 million Ukrainians having already been internally displaced by Russian aggression in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine since 2014.3 The international community is becoming aware of the human toll the Russian war on Ukraine, but the level of psychological trauma that Ukrainians are, and have been, living with, and the damage this will have on their mental health remains to be determined. We must expect it will be significant.