14 Ukrainian ex-POWs join a week-long alpine retreat in Austria, combining mountain climbing and trauma therapy. Led by fellow veterans, the program helps soldiers and families heal from war, captivity, and separation.
00:00A group of Ukrainian ex-soldiers are on a remarkable journey in the Alps.
00:06These men have all survived between three months and three years in Russian captivity.
00:12They are all husbands and fathers.
00:16Hosted by an extraordinary assembly of fellow veterans and volunteers from around the world,
00:22they're learning how to climb mountains, to heal their battle scars,
00:26and to rebuild the family relationships that have been ruptured by the war.
00:42A sleepy Austrian village is the setting for this week-long retreat
00:45in which 14 Ukrainian veterans will take lessons in mountaineering as well as a course of therapy.
00:51Some were professional soldiers for whom the war began in 2014.
00:55Viktor Ischenko from Kharkiv Oblast was a civilian who volunteered to defend his country
01:01after the full-scale invasion in 2022.
01:04When the war started, the first thing I did was take my family to safety.
01:13Before I joined the fight against the enemy, it was important to me to know that my family was safe.
01:19I was mobilized in April. At the beginning of May, I was on the front line of Luhansk Oblast.
01:30At the end of June, I was captured.
01:34During a battle, I was wounded in my lower leg.
01:46It happened during an artillery assault when we were encircled by the enemy.
01:51There were a lot of heavily wounded during the battle.
02:00We started to retreat.
02:03But because I was heavily wounded, I was crawling.
02:07And I didn't manage to break out of the encirclement.
02:10Which is why I was eventually captured.
02:17They threatened to kill me.
02:19They kept pointing their guns at me.
02:21They kept turning the safety catch on and off and shooting next to my head or firing in the air.
02:27They threatened to kill me, but didn't do it.
02:31I always had a deep belief that I would come back home.
02:38I was sure that my loved ones were safe.
02:41This belief kept me going.
02:46I knew in my heart that my release would happen when I least expected it.
02:52While I was sleeping, they entered the barracks, called out my name and told me to pick up my stuff.
03:06Many of us believed we were being transferred to another prison, further into Russia, perhaps into Crimea.
03:16They beat us during the transfer and threatened us with guns, turning the safety catch on and off, threatening to kill us.
03:24We were on the road for almost 24 hours.
03:31My wife was watching the news.
03:33She knew there was going to be a prisoner exchange.
03:36I had had her phone number in my head the whole time.
03:40I was very afraid my daughter wouldn't recognise me, because she was only two years old.
03:53But it was such a happy moment when I saw them again.
03:56I will never forget it, ever in my life.
04:03The programme for the former prisoners of war is the creation of the Mountain Seed Foundation,
04:07a non-profit organisation run by military veterans from the US and Europe.
04:12Organisers all have a deeply felt affinity for the Ukrainian cause.
04:17Many also have a dose of personal trauma from their own experiences of conflict.
04:25I think we're all called to the mountains in one way or another.
04:28The mountains have always been like a place of healing, but it's also a challenge.
04:33I mean, you look up to a mountain and you can't help but say,
04:37I wonder what it would be like to climb that.
04:40I think it's innate in all of us.
04:44I think it's really important for the Ukrainian veterans to see that there's other warriors
04:49that recognise what they've been through.
04:51But their stories are heavy.
04:54I don't think we in many Western countries truly understand the cruelty of the aggressor in this case.
05:04By veterans supporting veterans, it's a way to give back.
05:08We acknowledge that their fight is just.
05:12It's a way for us to heal from, you know, that moral injury that many of us have
05:17for having been in wars that should not have been fought.
05:24Nathan, specifically, found a lot of healing in the mountains.
05:27And for him, they hold a very, very special place.
05:32I really just like climbing.
05:35But on the therapeutic side, it's a mindfulness exercise.
05:40Everything else washes away.
05:44You're not thinking about a past problem that you have or what's going on at home.
05:49You are right there.
05:51Most of the time trying to save your own life.
05:55But it allows you to be really mindful.
05:59Be present in the moment.
06:00Be grounded to something that you're touching.
06:03So it does have a lot of therapeutic value that maybe other sports wouldn't have the same effect.
06:10It's not only the ex-soldiers who have traveled to Austria to benefit from the cathartic effects of a crash course in mountaineering.
06:17The program is catered to families.
06:20All 14 former captives are accompanied by their wives and children, on whom the war has also taken a severe toll.
06:29These men have usually not spoken about their experience.
06:34They have returned to a family that has been eagerly waiting, praying, working towards their release.
06:44And the men who come home, come home as strangers to these families.
06:50Clinical psychologist Dr Amit Oren is the author of the program of therapy, which is taking place throughout the week.
06:56It is the wives, the women, who bear the brunt.
07:04Usually silently.
07:06Because one should be really, really happy and glad to receive your husband back home.
07:12You've waited so long for this moment.
07:16But they come home as people they don't recognize.
07:21There is shame in looking at the difficulties and potentially even sharing or complaining about it when they should be just delighted for the return of their spouse.
07:34Much of our focus is to somehow find a way for the family to envelop and accept this stranger back into the fold.
07:48One of the women experiencing this challenge is Natalia, whose husband spent a number of years at the front and several months in captivity.
07:56He didn't smile. He lost this ability in captivity. He lost all feelings.
08:09After weeks in a desperate encirclement at the Azov-style steel plant in Mariupol in 2022, Bogdan and his comrades received the order from Kyiv to surrender.
08:19All prisoners of war have different experiences because there are various prisons, but they are all inhuman.
08:37They don't consider us human. We are not human beings for them.
08:41My feelings didn't return straight away. It's an ongoing process, getting your old feelings back.
08:53It can take months or even years to return fully.
09:01Not just in a physical sense, but in an emotional one.
09:07I'm still trying to find my way back. Maybe I'm at about 90%.
09:16I think here he returned back to himself.
09:23People mentioned that he smiled.
09:27Three days, day by day, he smiled.
09:30A week is not enough time for the therapy team to unpack deep-seated trauma.
09:38The hosts instead hope to train positive psychological habits by encouraging their Ukrainian guests to notice and nurture their strengths,
09:48and to focus on their own pride and joy.
09:51all of which is underlined each day by their remarkable achievements in the mountains.
09:58Some, like the endeavour to scale a 100-metre-tall dam, are made even more special by the fact that families accomplished them together.
10:09I want to share a little story about Sofia.
10:16It's a story from 2022, before I joined the army, before I decided to go to the front line and protect our land.
10:24I was just about to get into the car and I was really pressed for time.
10:33Sofia was with Yulia. She was two years old at the time.
10:38When I was about to depart, Sofia said to me, Father, be careful.
10:46These words were my salvation.
10:58Whenever I was disorientated or lost, or whenever there was a moment of danger, I remembered these words.
11:06I'm very grateful to everybody for supporting her all the way.
11:13She's my little guardian angel.
11:16This little girl, who is now five, volunteered to speak.
11:29She stood in front of a room full of people and very plainly said,
11:36Dad, today, the same thing happened to me.
11:41When I was afraid to climb, you said to me,
11:49Be careful. We want you with us. We will help you get through it.
11:56Those words were also in my mind and they helped me accomplish the climb.
12:02The father, who's seen Helen back, took his daughter into his arms and at the same time leaned against his wife.
12:18And they were whole.
12:19They were all whole.
12:22I think that was the secret of my father, but he does not have to be able to change.
12:25All I remember, mate, I think that was a very important thing.
12:27But I have to go through the school.
12:29He took my father in school to get my father in school.
12:32It was a very important thing.
12:34I'm thinking he's had to take my father in school.
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