Local residents gather in front of a makeshift memorial near a partially destroyed residential building in Kyiv on May 15, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [AFP]
Over four years into Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine's mental health crisis is palpable and growing, the World Health Organization said Friday, warning the effects could be felt for generations.
The mental strain of the grinding war in Ukraine has long been a priority for the government and for the health response in the country.
Jarno Habicht, the WHO representative in Ukraine, pointed out that already in March 2022, a month into the full-scale war, the United Nations health agency had estimated that 10 million people would need support for mental health in the country.
"These needs have been increasing," he told reporters in Geneva, pointing WHO's latest data showing that "71 percent of people have episodes of anxiety, stress, sleepless nights".
