KYIV: Since his release from a Russian prison in April, Stanislav Tarnavskyi has been in a hurry to build the life in Ukraine he dreamed about during three years of captivity.
The 25-year-old has proposed to his girlfriend, bought an apartment and adopted a golden retriever. And that was just what he accomplished one week in July.
But as busy as he is rekindling old relationships and creating new ones, Tarnavskyi cannot shake the trauma he and thousands of other Ukrainian soldiers experienced as prisoners of war. The UN says many endured beatings, starvation and humiliation at the hands of their captors — experiences that will leave lifelong scars.
Tarnavskyi, who was captured during the battle for Mariupol in April of 2022, regularly has nightmares about the prisons where he was held.
“I see the officers who watched over us. I dream they want to harm me, catch me,” he said. When he wakes up, his heart pounds, anxiety surges — until he realizes he is in the outskirts of Kyiv, where he was forced to move because Russia occupied his hometown of Berdiansk.
As the three-year war drags on, Tarnavskyi is one of more than 5,000 former POWs back in Ukraine rehabilitating with the help of regular counseling. Regardless of any physical injuries that may require attention, psychologists say it is vital to monitor former POWs for years after their release; the cost of war, they say, echoes for generations.
A marriage proposal
In a photography studio high above Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, sunlight floods the white walls. After a shoot that lasted several hours Tarnavskyi said the brightness was hurting his eyes, which are still sensitive from years spent in a dark cell.
But his mood couldn’t be dimmed. The girlfriend who waited for his return had just consented to his surprise proposal.
“I love you very much, I am very glad that you waited for me,” Tarnavskyi said, holding a thick bouquet of pink roses and a ring. “You have always been my support, and I hope you will remain so for the rest of my life. Will you marry me?”
Tarnavskyi said it was the thought of Tetiana Baieva — whom he met in 2021 — that helped stop him from committing suicide three times during captivity.
Still, he finds it hard to talk with Baieva about his time in prison. He doesn’t want to be pitied.
Soon after he returned home, he was paranoid, feeling watched — a reaction to constant surveillance in prison. “If you stepped out of line, they’d (Russians) come and beat you. I still get flashbacks when I see (surveillance) cameras. If I see one, I get nervous,” he said.
But with each passing week, he is feeling better, progress Tarnavskyi credits to the work he is doing with a psychologist.
Lifelong care is vital
Any small stimulus — a smell, a breeze, a color — can trigger traumatic memories for POWs, says Kseniia Voznitsyna, the director of Ukraine’s Lisova Polyana mental health center for veterans on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Yet contrary to stereotypes, ex-POWs aren’t more aggressive. “They tend to isolate themselves, avoid large gatherings, and struggle with trust,” said Voznitsyna.
“They say time heals — five or ten years, maybe — but it doesn’t,” she added. “It just feels less intense.”
A 2014 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine found that Israeli ex-POWs and combat veterans tracked over 35 years had higher mortality rates, chronic illnesses and worse self-rated health — conditions partly tied to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The authors of the study said that is why it is crucial to monitor ex-POWs and give them specialized medical and psychological care as they age.
That logic rings true to Denys Zalizko, a 21-year-old former POW who has been back in Ukraine for less than three months but is already sure his recovery will take a long time.
“You can’t fool yourself. Even if you really want to, you will never forget. It will always haunt you,” he said.
An artist to be
Zalizko survived torture, suicide attempts and relentless beatings during roughly 15 months in Russian captivity.
The first time his mother, Maria Zalizko, saw him after his release, she barely recognized him. He was thin and appeared “broken”, she said, with torment in his eyes.
Zalizko’s physical appearance is now almost completely different. His skin looks healthy, his muscles are taut and he has lots of energy. But still there is sadness in his eyes.
Two things keep him moving forward and help clear his mind: music and exercise.
“Pauses and stillness bring anxiety,” says Zalizko.
Like Tarnavskyi, he is receiving mandatory counseling at the Lisova Polyana mental health center. And like many former POWs, he still battles hypervigilance — listening for threats, scanning his surroundings. At night, sleep comes in fragments, and that was true even before a recent uptick in nightly drone attacks by the Russian army.
For the families of POWs, the reintegration process is also a struggle.
A psychologist advised Maria Zalizko to give her son space, to avoid calling him too often. But it is Denys who often calls her, sometimes singing over the phone — a skill she taught him as a child.
“I love music. Music unites,” he said, touching the tattoo of a treble clef behind his ear — inked after his return. Even in captivity, he sang quietly to himself, composing songs in his mind about love, home and war. Now he dreams of turning that passion into a career as an artist.
“I’ve become stronger now,” Zalizko said. “I’m not afraid of death, not afraid of losing an arm or a leg, not afraid of dying instantly. I fear nothing anymore.”

NEW YORK CITY: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Sunday issued a stark appeal ahead of the High-Level Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, urging governments to exert maximum pressure on Israel to end what he described as a “carnage” in Gaza and warning that inaction could amount to complicity in international crimes.

In a video statement released from Geneva, Türk called for “immediate steps by Israel to end its unlawful continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory,” and urged all parties to work towards tangible progress on implementing a two-state solution.

The event, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France and officially titled the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, is being described as both urgent and historic.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Sunday warned that humanitarian crisis in Gaza is dire, with widespread hunger, children wasting away, and people risking their lives just to access food.

While Israel’s recent move to ease restrictions and allow more aid through is a step forward, Fletcher said it is not nearly enough. Vast quantities of aid, safe access routes, consistent fuel supplies, and protection for civilians are urgently needed to prevent further catastrophe. A sustained, immediate humanitarian response and a permanent ceasefire are critical.

Turk said: “This Conference must deliver concrete action,” he said, appealing to participating governments to “put all possible pressure on the Israeli government to end the carnage in Gaza — permanently.” Turk cautioned that “countries that fail to use their leverage may be complicit in international crimes.”

Describing the situation in Gaza and the West Bank as an “unspeakable tragedy,” Türk said that daily violence and destruction were fueling the “dehumanization of Palestinians.”

He condemned Israeli plans that he said amounted to consolidating the annexation of the West Bank and forcing Palestinians out of Gaza. “Every day, we see actions and hear about plans (to) crowd extremely exhausted and hungry people into ever-smaller areas of the territory, after repeated displacement orders by the Israeli military,” he said.

“These steps put the two-state solution even further out of reach.”

“Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes,” Turk said, calling Gaza “a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction.”

He strongly criticized what he described as the failure of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, supported by the United States and Israel, saying its chaotic, militarized distribution centers “are failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed.”

According to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, Turk said, over 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since October 7, about ten percent of the territory’s population. He also noted that more than 1,000 people have died since May while trying to access food, and that over 300 humanitarian workers have been killed by Israel.

“All countries have an obligation to take concrete steps to ensure that Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, complies with its obligations to ensure that sufficient food and lifesaving necessities are provided to the population,” he said.

Turning to the occupied West Bank, Türk accused Israeli security forces and settlers of “continuing to kill Palestinians, demolish houses, cut off water supplies, and consolidate systems of oppression and discrimination.”

While condemning the October 7 attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups and recognizing the trauma inflicted on Israel, Turk reiterated his long-standing condemnation of the scale of Israel’s military response in Gaza. He said he has warned repeatedly of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the need to prevent genocide, echoing concerns raised by the International Court of Justice.

“The people of the world will judge this Conference on what it delivers,” he warned.

Turk renewed calls for an “immediate, permanent ceasefire,” the “unconditional release of all hostages and all others arbitrarily detained,” and for “massive” humanitarian aid to be delivered to Palestinians “wherever they are.”

He concluded by expressing the UN human rights office’s readiness to support Palestinian state-building efforts grounded in human rights and the rule of law, and emphasized the future importance of victim support and accountability.