Why cold, darkness worsen PTSD among ex-POWs
We explore the tragic, unusual link between cold and post traumatic stress. Amid blackouts, former POWs face a surge in flashbacks. Oleksii is waking up from nightmares for the first time in years.
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By Denise Wallace
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Editor’s note: The following article depicts scenes of violence and torture.
“I’ve started having bad dreams. I remember my punishment cell. It was constantly cold there. Even in summer, it was always cold in our cell,” said Oleksii Anulia, who spent nearly ten months in Russian captivity in 2022.
It has been three years since he was released from the punishment cell, where the air was saturated with mold and the stench of urine and feces.
Yet, this winter Oleksii has begun waking in the middle of the night to flashbacks, as the darkness and cold in his own home resembles the conditions of captivity.
He is not alone. Traumatic memories have intensified among former prisoners of war, with the onset of blackouts, as power outages have become a powerful trigger.
Cold is one of the forms of torture Russian forces systematically use against Ukrainians held in Russian prisons. Today, that same cold has turned into a tool of pressure on civilians, aimed at breaking society and forcing Ukraine into concessions.
February 1 marked the end of the so-called ‘energy ceasefire’ between Russia and Ukraine, initiated by Donald Trump and purportedly meant to shield Ukrainians from mass strikes during the harshest cold of the winter. This month, Ukraine is experiencing its most severe cold spell of the season, with temperatures in some northern cities dropping to −28°C (−18.4°F).
For prisoners of war, cold has become an all-consuming psychological trigger, demonstrating how exposure to low temperatures can evoke long-lasting consequences for mental health…
… And how methods of torture in captivity can be adapted far beyond the trenches.
Oleksii’s flashbacks to his captivity started again in late autumn when Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure sent it into its first major blackout of the year.
It had been a long time since Oleksii last had nightmares — almost two years — so long that he started to think he might even be free from them.
At the time, he was returning home to Chernihiv after a trip to the United States, where he presented his book about captivity.
“I came back into darkness. The moment I arrived in Kyiv, I realized it was a one-way road — fifty kilometers of uninterrupted darkness. Two or three cars coming toward you, that’s it. The contrast after California felt like I’d arrived in the afterlife,” Oleksii recalled.
His legs and arms began to seize up again because of the cold, reminding him of how his limbs had rotted in captivity. For the first time in a while, his dreams showed him the days he had tried to forget.
Oleksii Anulia was captured by the Russians in March 2022 when he was defending Chernihiv from the Russian offensive alongside his father. He was the only survivor among his unit at their positions in the village of Lukashivka, 18 kilometers from the city, where he hid in a ditch while the Russians cleared the settlement.
He hid there for a full day until a local resident handed him over to the Russians. Forty minutes later, Russian soldiers surrounded him.
The Russians initially intended to execute him. Instead, Oleksii was taken in for interrogation, marking the start of his personal hell.
Oleksii was taken to a torture site near the border of Belarus, in the village of Vyshneve. In front of him, during interrogations, other prisoners were shot, raped, and stabbed to death. Oleksii himself was stripped naked, and positioned in such a way that he was forced to defecate onto another prisoner lying beneath him.
Later, Oleksii was moved to Russia’s Kursk region, where he spent a little over a month in a pretrial detention center.
“There was very severe ‘intake’ there. They beat us for seven hours straight. I couldn’t go to the toilet even once during the 40 days I was there. I had [bruises] so bad that I couldn’t sit down,” Oleksii said.
In May 2022, he was flown to a maximum-security penal colony in the town of Donskoy in Russia’s Tula region. There, Russians use the most brutal methods of torture: Ukrainian prisoners are not allowed to sleep at night, to move, or to sit.
This colony now appears in Oleksii’s dreams.
Cold is a traumatic event even in peaceful circumstances. In February 2021, when Texas was hit by a severe snowstorm accompanied by freezing temperatures, 4.5 million people were left without electricity.
Nearly one in five who experienced this showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Those who were left without electricity for the longest time were three-times more likely to develop PTSD symptoms.
Winter exacerbates the symptoms of the disorder among veterans like Oleksii. When the days become shorter, circadian rhythms, which regulate sleep, metabolism, hormones and body temperature, are disrupted. Serotonin production decreases, which directly affects mood.
People who have experienced trauma like Oleksii can be triggered by signals, both external (darkness, feeling confined, lack of light) and internal (trembling, numbness, physiological reactions to cold). The brain and body continue to react as if the danger is still present, even though the person is now in a safer environment.
“For [POW], a sudden change in light, darkness – these are triggers [of flashbacks]. Some people even experience disorientation… A person freezes, sits with a stony face as if they are not here. And sometimes the opposite – they start to move chaotically, waving their arms, making sudden movements,” said Hanna Khomenko, a crisis psychologist who works with released Ukrainian POWs.
While he was in the penal colony in the Tula region, Oleksii was placed in a punishment cell for more than 100 days, where he remained until his release on December 31, 2022.
It was impossible to get warm in the cell. He was brutally beaten and starved, with no option besides eating a worm or a mouse to calm his exhausted stomach.
“Now I dream about dampness, constant cold urine. I’m standing in it in my slippers, my legs are constantly freezing and festering,” Oleksii said.
In his dreams, he constantly tries to wrap himself in a mesh blanket which lets the cold through the holes in the fabric.
The warmest thing in captivity was a thin sheet. Under it, Oleksii curled up into the fetal position and wrapped himself, rubbing his legs to warm his body. Now, as soon as it gets cold in his home, he feels it through his broken toes, later seeping into his nightmares.
People with PTSD are generally more sensitive to cold than others, which is why the lack of heating in their homes can be harder for them to endure.
Their nervous systems are in a state of heightened stress which causes the body to increase blood flow to vital organs such as the heart and lungs while reducing circulation to the extremities. In addition, chronic stress can constrict blood vessels, further impairing blood flow. This causes an affected person to feel even colder.
In Oleksii’s hometown of Chernihiv, city authorities suspended hot water service citywide last week because the current energy capacity is insufficient to heat residential buildings. Indoor temperatures which can drop to only a few degrees above freezing trigger Oleksii’s physical reactions.
“I can see it in the children. I can see that they have no opportunity to develop or study, no chance to get enough sleep or wash with warm water. For my son, taking a hot shower has already become something like a luxury,” the former serviceman said.
Meanwhile, prisoners of war who remain in Russian captivity are forced to endure freezing temperatures in even worse conditions. POWs are subject to constant darkness and cold which are inescapable. About 2,500 Ukrainian prisoners of war are still held in Russia or in occupied territories.
Russia has effectively stopped or delayed prisoner exchanges, using them as a tool of pressure on Ukraine in negotiations. Earlier, Ukraine announced a planned exchange of 1,000 for 1,000, scheduled for the end of 2025, but the Russian side postponed it.
Oleksii feels a deep sense of injustice. After fighting to survive against hunger and cold, he has returned to similar conditions. However, Oleksii believes he does not have the right to give up either. Movement and walks in the forest have become his escape. In captivity, he was forbidden even to move.
For Oleksii, it is evident that hardship brings people together.
At home, his family tries to keep warm together, huddling in one room so it doesn’t feel quite as cold. Between the moments of cold conditions and trauma, Oleksii has fully devoted his time to his children, rediscovering how to play board games by candlelight.
“There is no such phrase as ‘I’m tired’ in my vocabulary. I can see how much my children need this. And I see it in other children — those whose parents were killed in torture prisons [whom Oleksii helps]. Right now, I feel like I am the same kind of father to them as well,” he said.
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NEWS OF THE DAY:
By Anastasiia Kryvoruchenko
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
RUSSIA-U.S. NUCLEAR PACT EXPIRES: On Thursday, the last U.S.-Russia nuclear deterrence pact expires, AP reported. Opening up the possibility of the resumption of a nuclear arms race between the two largest nuclear arsenals in the world, after a half-century of nuclear deterrence.
Russia is willing to restrain the growth of its nuclear weapons for another year if the U.S. does the same, Putin said. However, a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Trump is expected to make a decision regarding nuclear arms control on his “own timeline”.
Trump has repeatedly advocated for limiting nuclear arms and would like to include China in a pact on nuclear arms control.
EU STATES LEAVE ZOOM AND TEAMS TO DISTANCE U.S.: Last week, Paris announced that 2.5 million public sector employees will stop using American video conferencing tools by 2027, AP reported.
An increasing number of other European governments, including Austria and Germany, are following this move. This will strengthen confidentiality and cyber security while also distancing the U.S. amid the recent tensions between the U.S. and Europe over Greenland.
MORE UKRAINIANS READY TO CEDE DONBAS, BUT WITH SECURITY GUARANTEES: In 2022, more than 80 percent of Ukrainians considered ceding territory to Russia unacceptable. Now, 40 percent are willing to give up Donbas, but only under the condition of lasting peace and strong security guarantees from European and American partners, The New York Times reported.
The issue of control of the Donbas territory is a key point in the Abu Dhabi peace talks. Zelensky has previously mentioned the possibility of creating a demilitarized zone separating the two countries.
CAT OF CONFLICT:
Today’s Cat of Conflict is Oleksandra’s cat Compote (it’s also the name of a Ukrainian winter drink made from boiled fruit). Compote isn’t the biggest fan of his new sweater, but without it he gets really cold.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Mariana, Oleksandra
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The importance of telling these stories, thus recording them for posterity, cannot be overstated. Thank you!
I have an orange boy cat too, but I have not had the courage to put a sweater on him!