Why are mentally ill soldiers being drafted in Ukraine?
M
emory lapses, disorientation, confusion about numbers and colors: These are just some of the issues that Vasyl, a 28-year-old from central Ukraine, deals with on a daily basis.
In fact, he's been receiving psychiatric care for a personality disorder since 2015. But none of that prevented the man — whose real name is being withheld for privacy reasons — being drafted into the Ukrainian military.
According to his partner Olena, Vasyl never really acknowledges his problems and he may well have failed to do so during the physical examination he was given before joining the military. Vasyl was found to be fit for service and recently sent to southern Ukraine for basic training.
Olena tried to explain all this to Vasyl's new commanding officer. After first being understanding, he dismissed the 2015 report from a psychiatric clinic that Olena brought him, saying that it was outdated.
"But how can that not be grounds for discharge, if his condition is incurable?" Olena asks.
DW has seen the report, which includes a list of Vasyl's problems. When he's stressed, the symptoms get worse, Olena notes.
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That would make him a danger not only to himself but others.
How can the mentally ill be drafted?
There's a Ukrainian databank that military doctors refer to, in order to find out if potential recruits are sick in some way. It's called Helsi and on its website in English, it describes itself as "the most popular medical information system for healthcare institutions and medical portal for patients in Ukraine."
But Vasyl's psychiatric diagnosis isn't in that system, says Ukrainian lawyer Yevhen Tsekhmister, because details about psychological illness can only be saved in there if the patient gives permission.
If the diagnosis had been there, then according to the Ministry of Defense's Order No. 402, it would make Vasyl unfit for service. Order No. 402 determines what the military medical examination should look for and how to assess a soldier's fitness for duty.
Tsekhmister explains that military doctors only trust official documentation because many men fake psychological disorders in order to avoid being drafted.
"If legal counsel had been sought more quickly, and more up to date evidence had been provided, Vasyl would not have been drafted," the lawyer said.
Thousands of complaints about draft:
At the end of 2024, Ukrainian human rights activist Olha Reshetylova was appointed as a military ombudswoman by Ukraine's President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
, so that soldiers and soldiers' families had a way to report violations of their rights.
Reshetylova recommends that individuals take responsibility for updating their own medical history in the Helsi system and with the military, acknowledging that recruits' mental health can deteriorate during basic training.
Senior officers don't want sick individuals serving in their units anyway, which is why they will often provide treatment if needed, she told DW.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been more than 2,000 complaints about human rights violations committed during mobilization, Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament's commissioner for human rights, reports. In 2024, there were 3,500 such complaints in total.
Although not all the complaints are justified, "we always react," he said. "There are cases where my local representatives will go to the draft board themselves to help citizens assert their rights," he told DW. "Thanks to our interventions, sick people have been discharged from the army."
It's true that sick people have been drafted, Lubinets conceded, although here are no concrete numbers as to exactly how manty.
"That can happen when staff ignore the medical documents or the condition of the person," Lubinets says.
In general, he believes new recruits should be more carefully posted around the military.
"Not every health problem automatically makes you unfit," he pointed out. "With back problems, you can't join the stormtroopers but you can work on a computer."
Soldiers with 'no teeth, tuberculosis':
A Ukrainian brigade commander told DW about his experiences with the recently drafted.
He spoke on condition of anonymity.
"I actually had the privilege of being able to choose my own men," he reported. "But some came with no teeth or they had tuberculosis — even at the training center!"
Some of those men had already been offered to the brigades several times but nobody wanted them, not even to build trenches, he said.
Kyrylo, whodidn't want to share his real name either, is another recent recruit who was drafted earlier this year.
While at the draft board, he says he saw homeless people with swollen legs, drug addicts and alcoholics. The medical exam is often just a formality and in some places, it doesn't even happen, he says. It's not until you get to the training facility that a more thorough medical examination will be carried out.
Another soldier, Oleksandr — who also didn't want to give his real name — says he even saw epileptics when he was drafted.
This kind of recruitment actually led to a man with schizophrenia being assigned to a brigade of marines in 2024, after basic training, he recounts. Luckily the man's condition quickly became clear.
"They didn't give him any weapons and sent him away after a few days," Oleksandr says.
Tsekhmister doesn't think that sort of thing is all that uncommon.
"A soldier, 1.75 meters tall, weighing 38 kilograms, with poor vision, a developmental disability and a malformed chest, can neither walk nor breathe in a bulletproof vest," the lawyer argues.
"But he's been in the army since 2022. He's constantly transferred from one unit to another, or to hospitals, and he receives basic care."
But since none of the various problems individually make him unfit for service, he can't be discharged on health grounds.
The unit commanders can't give these kinds of soldiers "real" jobs, nor can they let them go. The situation is particularly bad among ground troops and logistics services because they've become a kind of "dumping ground" for unhealthy individuals, Tsekhmister explains.
"They end up in brigades that are supposed to be building defense lines," he notes. "But they're useless there."
A danger to themselves and others?
Ukraine's Medical Forces Command, the service responsible for troops' medical support, insists things are being done the right way.
"Military doctors' assessments are based on diagnoses made by specialists," Yuriy Podolyan, a colonel and the deputy commander of the Medical Forces, said in reply to DW's enquiries.
"An assessment based on the combination of several illnesses is not provided for."
Podolyan also said that the Ministry of Defense's Order No. 402 complies with local law and international standards.
Military ombudswoman Reshetylova sees it differently and believes that the lack of possibility for that kind of assessment means something has gone wrong and needs review. The Ministry of Defense is apparently already working on that.
As for Vasyl, his basic training is almost at an end and soon he will be assigned to a unit. Lawyer Tsekhmister is trying to organize a second psychiatric evaluation by military doctors. According to Vasyl's partner Olena, he has access to weapons.
"If he ends up at the front, then he's a danger to the whole unit," Tsekhmister warns. "There's no way of predicting when his mental health will fail, or who might then be targeted."
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