When the guns fall silent, Ukraine’s invisible scars will reshape a generation

Roman Trokhymets and I were both there, standing in the cold, sharing the hope and the early, fracturing traumas of our nation’s modern history - though we were strangers at the time.

After the revolution, we took different paths. I emigrated, eventually settling in the UK to advocate for our country, collect funds, and send aid through Ukrainian communities in London and Manchester.

Roman stayed to build his life in Ukraine. It was a choice that would eventually demand he survive multiple gruelling combat rotations as a sniper with the Azov Brigade.

As we cross the agonising four-year mark of Russia’s full-scale invasion and 12 years of war with Russia, a sobering reality has settled over us: this war does not seem to be ending soon, yet its consequences will only compound.

I recently hosted Roman for a private interview in the UK. Sitting across from my new friend, the weight of our shared, tragic history hung in the room. I would never claim that my experiences equate to his - not by a long shot.

But looking at him, a man who recently survived several concussions, it was a stark reminder of how a single violent event can alter a trajectory, leaving marks for the rest of a life.

"It’s some kind of curse to have so much invisible damage," Roman told me, referencing the compounding pressure waves that have battered his nervous system.

This brings us to a terrifying question: what will these invisible scars look like in the future?

Roman raised a point during our time together that struck me deeply. We continuously, and rightfully, focus our attention on the veterans returning from the trenches.

But there will be an entire generation of children and civilians who will bear these exact same psychological marks without ever having participated in combat.

For four years, the line between the battlefield and the sanctuary has been erased. The constant wail of air raid sirens, the exhaustion, the grief - this is the water an entire nation is swimming in.

People say this resilience makes Ukrainians stronger, and it does. But at what cost?

One day, peace will return. The skies over Ukraine will once again be filled with the sounds of commercial planes, celebratory fireworks, and recreational drones.

But for millions of Ukrainians, those sounds will trigger something entirely different. The invisible scars will remain long after the cities are rebuilt.

How will the invisible shrapnel of this war manifest in the way we parent, the way we sleep, and the way we live? I wonder how this trauma will reshape our language.

What new idioms or gentle figures of speech will we invent to pass our survival instincts down, shielding the next generation from the raw horror of the truth?

Just as my grandmother once warned me that "runaway food" would chase me - a veiled echo of the Holodomor famine she survived - what metaphors will we use to explain why the hum of a commercial drone makes us freeze, or why a clear, starry night fills us with dread?

We will find ways to communicate the danger without passing on the terror, but the invisible scars will remain encoded in our culture.

Europe should understand this imminently. The continent still carries the generational wounds and silent scars of the Second World War. Yet history's darkest lessons are flashing red right now.

As we enter the fourth year of this full-scale invasion, the danger metastasizes with every passing hour. Every extra day this war continues increases the likelihood of a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, or other emboldened adversaries watching from the sidelines.

There is still a window to change this trajectory. But if Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, the bear will adapt, rearm, and inevitably bring even greater horrors westward.

We cannot let this happen.

Right now, Ukraine’s brightest minds and bravest hearts, people like Roman, who have sacrificed their physical and psychological well-being for the rest of us, are fighting a war they may not live to see the end of. They are absorbing the blast waves so the rest of the world does not have to.

Do not let their sacrifices be in vain. And do not let Europe learn the modern cost of these invisible scars firsthand.

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Mykola Kuzim is the Operations Manager at the Henry Jackson Society

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