Inaki Berazaluce
Jun 28, 2023
Fifteen months after the Russian invasion, the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to inflict catastrophic consequences on the population, both military and civilian. According to Olga Chernolov, a specialist in neuropsychopharmacology with a Ph.D, in neuroscience from the University of Ottawa, the Ministry of Health has estimated that 15 million people will require mental support, with 4 million Ukrainians requiring drug treatment.
Stanislav Gibadulin lost a leg, fingers and his best friend in a Russian army ambush in Donbass in 2018. The Moldovan-born soldier joined the ranks of the Azov battalion – an ultra-nationalist formation of Ukrainian and foreign volunteers, to defend Ukraine from Russian military aggression.
While Gibadulin’s physical wounds eventually healed, the deep psychological scars persisted. “I was plagued by feelings of guilt, anxiety, and fear, often consumed by thoughts of suicide,” he says. “Unaware of what PTSD was, I struggled to comprehend the turmoil that enveloped me.”
Gibadulin underwent talk therapy and used antidepressants, – the standard procedure for mental illness. “After three months, the intensity of my panic attacks began to subside,” he recalls. “Six months later, the symptoms seemed to dissipate, but I couldn’t shake the sense that something remained buried deep within me.”
Upon his return to Moldova, Gibadulin came across articles about psilocybin-assisted therapy as a groundbreaking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. “I immersed myself in extensive research and soon realized the credibility of the information, recognizing it as genuine rather than mere nonsense,” recollects the soldier.
Eventually, Gibadulin managed to get into Forest Glade (formerly “Lisova Polyana”), a Kyiv-based mental health and rehabilitation center using psychedelic-assisted therapies to treat war veterans in Ukraine. The soldier was reluctant to use the “drugs” (he led a paramilitary group against drug traffickers in Moldova), but eventually overcame his reservations and embarked on a journey of psychological healing. “During the therapy, I was able to truly realize and accept that it is not necessary to blame myself.”
Because psychedelic-assisted therapy in Ukraine is conducted entirely underground, the exact number of Ukrainian veterans treated is unknown, says Pavlo Belikov, cofounder of Ukrainian Psychedelic Research Association). “There is no legal basis for MDMA or Psilocybin assisted therapy in Ukraine, nor for their research,” explains Belikov.
Responding to Lucid News from Barcelona, Belikov shares his insights. He is one of the many young Ukrainians who left the country following the Russian invasion and have since settled in various parts of Europe. Leveraging his expertise in online marketing, Belikov is actively assisting his colleagues in Ukraine by promoting the awareness and benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy through online platforms.