But that same law also created a lot of pain for men with refugee children. Their wives or ex-wives may leave Ukraine with their children, and at the moment, there is no way for fathers to travel abroad to see them.
After more than a week of driving all day and all night through 10 countries, Tetiana and the couple’s oldest child finally arrived in Turku, Finland, where their youngest son, a semipro hockey player, lives. That’s when he realized he didn’t want to go home.
auntie
Being so tired I spent the first few days sleeping, walking and thinking. I suddenly had free time when I didn’t have to go to my job or take care of my parents. And then for a moment it was surprising that I realized: I did not miss the house. I don’t want to go back. I mean, it’s not that I don’t love my parents or my husband. I don’t think about divorce. I just realized that I want to be alone.
ANDRII
The first weeks were really hard. After all those years, wake up alone, in a cold bed, with no one waiting for you? And it’s not just the distance. This is the lack of belief in tomorrow. I don’t know if the Russian troops will come to us or not. I don’t know if I will live or not. But not a night went by that I didn’t dream of him.
The number of marriages ending in Ukraine this past year is twice or even three times higher than before the war, according to estimates by Ukrainian mental health professionals, divorce lawyers, dating gurus, court clerks and judges. Experts say that what drives Ukraine divorce ratewhich is always high compared to other countries, is not so much stress related to war, although there is a lot of that, but the enormous scale of isolation.
said Dr. Trofymenko, the psychotherapist, that when people are disconnected from their communities, they begin to reevaluate everything.
“People are starting to ask questions,” he said. “Like: Is this person I’ve spent years of my life with still the right person for me if I don’t know who I am anymore?”
