Addressing Moral Injury in Ukrainian Veterans

The focus of my visit, under the auspices of the HopeFull charity whose volunteers have been distributing compassion and food to communities across Ukraine, is to provide expertise to deal with the need for rehabilitation after the trauma of war. The project is called ‘Hope for the Wounded’. Moral injury is one of the principal issues affecting Ukrainian veterans. Individuals face the shame of surviving when their mates did not and talk of the guilt of perpetrating acts that confront their moral values.

The understanding of moral injury has increased significantly in the last 10 years as a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Moral Injury is an emotional spiritual condition involving a sense of guilt, shame, betrayal, and self-condemnation.

Psychiatrist Dr Jonathan Shay, who coined the term 'moral injury', explains that it can occur at both an individual level—when a person perpetrates, fails to prevent, or witnesses a serious act that violates deeply held moral beliefs—and at an organisational level, when significant transgressions arise from a betrayal of what is culturally considered morally right in 'high-stakes' situations by those in legitimate authority.

How are we going to address this in Ukraine? The objective is to create the template for a network of 140 rehabilitation centres across Ukraine, within a safe and trusted environment of open and honest communication. Veterans will be able to establish a community within which they can freely articulate their experience, their self, their needs, and their aspirations for the future while letting go of the past and understanding the power of self-forgiveness, acceptance, and self-compassion in a culture of post-traumatic growth.

The programme will reflect the balance between body, soul, spirit, and the material within the human condition. At a more practical level it will enable a holistic practical ‘audit’ of needs to assist in the individual’s transition from where they are to a new future defined by meaningful purpose – including paid or self-employment or voluntary work – while understanding the transferable skills, experiences, and values that can be taken into the future.

In Kiev, we met a Member of Parliament who is responsible for designing and delivering a veteran rehabilitation strategy, within which the veteran is seen not as a problem but as an opportunity for development. This very enlightened approach echoes my belief that every veteran is an individual with a unique set of challenges but also hopes, dreams and potential for the future. They deserve to be honoured through a process that brings all aspects of their lives into a single trajectory towards the life that provides them with healing and fulfilment.

Simon Edwards is a Director of Moral Injury Partnership along with Dr Sophie Redlin and Alison O'Connor, the first collaboration of Churchill Fellows who came together to design and deliver a globally leading response to Moral Injury.