War, daily life, and the mental health of young Ukrainians

As I write this from a café in my hometown of Melbourne, Australia, I am made aware of a drone attack on the city of Lviv. Message groups I still belong to from my recent time there are frenetically active with safety check-ins and people detailing their personal experiences of the explosions. The city I spent four weeks in as an INDEX Scholar in Residence. The city I grew so fond of, along with the friends I had left behind within it, had just endured a drone flying into a heritage-listed building in broad daylight, as well as a barrage of other attacks across the preceding hours. Three people died, many more were wounded. Such attacks have been occurring in Ukraine for the past twelve years, and routinely continue to this day right across the country. 

These immediate existential threats are part of people’s everyday realities throughout Ukraine, and have placed a huge burden on the mental health of all Ukrainians who have been forced to live through them. Further to these immediate threats, basic contributors to sound psychological functioning are also highly impeded at this time. 

Whether it’s the need to seek shelter from an impending attack interrupting a proper night’s sleep, or the calm cultivated by engaging in a leisure activity being immediately cancelled out by the horrifying sounds of an air-strike, wellbeing needs to be understood in a very different way within an environment of war. 

How young Ukrainians are coping with their mental health

Ukrainian young adults (aged 18-35) have been highlighted in the research as being particularly vulnerable to experiencing poorer mental health outcomes amidst this wartime context.¹ This is a life stage whereby people tend to be navigating many changes and transitions in their lives: engaging in exploration, working towards the establishment of their careers, and leaning more on friends than family for their social support.² And yet for many young people in Ukraine, these important developmental processes and the systems that support them have been significantly disrupted by the war, while the variety of stressors and challenges they are already facing in navigating these years of uncertainty and complexity are significantly compounded by the strain of survival and its associated trauma. 

Research on how young Ukrainians are faring since the time of the full-scale invasion has identified symptoms of PTSD, depression, pathological stress, and heightened anxiety as endemic in the lives of both civilians and combatants.³ In addition to the intense stress and trauma brought on by witnessing the heavy fighting, nearby explosions, or grieving the loss of loved ones, Ukrainians also endure daily challenges that have significantly exacerbated this stress. Challenges to do with securing stable employment during a time of such significant economic disruption, difficulties with connecting with friends and family - some left behind in occupied territory, others seeking refuge abroad - as well as issues of displacement and the many different struggles that come with that. These are just a few of the significant obstacles young people have faced throughout the past four, or in some cases twelve, years. 

Researchers often prescribe broad interventions to cope with the psychological impacts of such challenges. For instance, we know that engaging in mindfulness meditation can calm someone’s nervous system in the moment, just as we know that physical exercise is a good stress reliever and that strong social connectedness can help foster resilience. These approaches are indeed proven methods capable of having positive effects on people’s immediate stress levels when implemented, and research specifically focusing on the mental health of Ukrainians since the full-scale invasion has highlighted these interventions as effective psychological coping mechanisms.⁴ However, there are significant caveats to the efficacy of these approaches that one can only truly understand by being in Ukraine. I recall my own experiences of attempting to call back home and connect with family amidst a particularly challenging day during my recent time in the country, only to be abruptly cut off as the power went out, and with it so too did my phone network. Plans to join a Saturday morning run group through Lviv’s picturesque Stryiskyi Park, an opportunity to engage in both some exercise and social interactions with those present, interrupted by an air alert along with a message from a colleague encouraging me to take this particular alert seriously. Such activities are indeed effective and helpful coping endeavours during the difficulties of everyday life in Ukraine, and should of course be engaged in when possible. However, one must pursue such approaches with a persistent knowing that things can change in an instant. 

Photos from author's private archive

So, what is one to do? Away from these practical yet at times challenged behavioural approaches to psychological coping amidst wartime Ukraine, a number of studies have highlighted the subsequent ways in which more process and perspective orientated approaches to wellbeing can be effective in fostering positive psychological outcomes over time. For example, research has shown the ways in which many young Ukrainian people have engaged in the processes of ‘posttraumatic growth’ across the past four years.⁵ This is a process characterised by personal experiences of growth and maturity, as well as a greater appreciation for everyday life, as a result of enduring highly challenging life circumstances.⁶ Differing from the previously mentioned behavioural approaches, more centred on improving one’s in-the-moment psychological state, this process is defined by fostering wisdom and resilience, which in turn allow for better long-term coping. The cultivation of these character traits and perspectives is importantly acknowledged as shifts not capable of overwriting experiences of trauma, grief, and depression brought on by the horrors of war.⁷ And yet this process does reflect an adaptive coping approach, allowing for an alternative perspective on such intensely challenging circumstances, and one that, in my own experience interviewing many young Ukrainians across the past few years, has continually filled me with awe and admiration. 

This is a strength and mindset that has, perhaps, in part, been developed by the horrific circumstances they have been forced to endure throughout the past four years, while likely also inherent in traits that were within them well before. A deep strength inherited from one’s ancestors, who in the last century alone endured Soviet occupation, the Holodomor famine, and the horrors of the Second World War. 

The Ukrainian Mindset

Of course, the mental health of young Ukrainians is suffering, and it will continue to do so for the duration of this war, as well as likely for some time thereafter. Yet as I have written previously, there is cause for optimism when it comes to the approaches at large of young people and how they have approached living their lives amidst the most horrific of circumstances. As one young person shared with me on a previous visit: ‘We are tough, it’s the Ukrainian mindset.’ Centuries of resistance in the face of persecution would attest to this. This young person continued: ‘When they come at us, we come back stronger, we get better.’ As Ukrainians continue to live through these relentless attacks on their territory, may this mindset continue to help people persevere through these horrific circumstances, and may it also capture greater attention from the international community. The more their stories of immense hardship alongside the resilience and growth revealed through them are shared, and the more they are understood through both psychological and humanitarian lenses, the better equipped foreign and domestic practitioners and supporters will be to help now and into the future. 

• ¹ Polyvianaia, M., Yachnik, Y., Fegert, J. M., Sitarski, E., Stepanova, N., & Pinchuk, I. (2025). Mental health of university students twenty months after the beginning of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. BMC psychiatry, 25(1), 236.
• ²  Arnett , J. J., Žukauskienė , R., & Sugimura , K.(2014). The new life stage of emerging adulthood at ages 18–29 years: Implications for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(7), 569–576.
• ³ Palace , M., Zamazii , O., Terbeck , S., Bokszczanin , A., Berezovski , T., Gurbisz , D., & Szwejka, L. (2024). Mapping the factors behind ongoing war stress in Ukraine-based young civilian adults. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being, 16(3), 868–885.
• ⁴ Humphrey, A., & Forbes-Mewett, H. (2026). The experiences, coping practices, and mental health of Ukrainian young people living amid wartime Ukraine. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 32(1), 109–119. 
• ⁵ Slezackova, A., Malatincova, T., Millova, K., Svetlak, M. & Krafft, A.M. (2024) The moderating effect of perceived hope in the relationship between anxiety and posttraumatic growth during the Russian-Ukrainian war. Frontiers in Psychology.
• ⁶ Tedeschi, R. G. & CalhounL. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 1–18. 
• ⁷ Betancourt , T. S., & Khan , K. T. (2008). The mental health of children affected by armed conflict: Protective processes and pathways to resilience. International Review of Psychiatry, 20(3), 317–328.