Rodion Trystan was left without an eye on the Ukrainian front at the age of 23. He quickly realized that this war injury would affect all aspects of his life, including his intimate relationships.

Although he has had several girlfriends since he was injured in fighting against pro-Russian separatists in 2015, he has also had disastrous experiences, such as when a woman he had met through an app turned her back on him and left when she saw his face. .

The civilian reintegration program for combatants does not include this issue, laments Trystan. “The problem is that we don’t talk about sex at all,” he explained to AFP.

To remedy this situation, Trystan has decided to take part in a project carried out by an organization of ex-combatants to break the taboo of sex and relationships after having suffered a war injury.

“It’s a completely taboo subject in Ukraine,” says Galyna Alomova, a spokeswoman for the VeteranHub center for ex-servicemen in kyiv.

The project, called ‘Resex’, includes manuals for men and women, a website and a promotional video campaign. It has been funded by donors, including Switzerland.

Investigators have contacted 29 wounded ex-combatants, between the ages of 18 and 55, and 10 of their partners.

“We have concentrated on the physical impact. We have asked amputees, who suffered very visible trauma,” insists Alomova.

The couples responded very differently, with some being “very secretive” about the issue of sexuality, says Bogdana Levytska, who manages the project.

To demystify the issue, posters have also been made representing questions and answers about sexuality.

“Can you have a full sex life after being hurt?” asks one of them. “Yes, you can have it all: a sexual life, passion, tenderness and love. The essential thing is love,” reads the answer on the poster.

According to Alomova, the project is aimed not only at wounded soldiers but also wants to break stereotypes about the army.

The military are usually represented in Ukraine as severe and austere figures, “very powerful gods but very strict and who do not have a sexual life,” he summarizes.

The books directly address post-traumatic stress syndrome, the pleasure of sex and masturbation.

“After being hurt, you can still get aroused and be aroused… satisfy and be satisfied… more than once,” one video explains.

The project, however, does not cover all wounds or all types of couples. There is no LGBT representative nor was any injured woman questioned.

“The injured women we know were not in an emotional state conducive to communication, their injuries were too fresh,” Levytska argues.

There is also little information on genital lesions, because “there are almost no statistics on it.” “In general, when a person is injured at the level of the genital organs, he dies,” adds Levytska.

Ex-serviceman Rodion Trystan, now 32, currently works on a helpline for VeteranHub and has agreed to appear in bed with a woman in a video for the project.

For him, he explains, the main problem is not the mechanics of sex, but the fact of meeting someone who does not accept his wound.

“I am functional, I have legs, I have arms, I only have aesthetic problems and vision problems,” he insists. “Sometimes my prosthesis falls off,” she adds.

In his case, it is a matter of “acceptance”: “couples must accept my status, my aesthetic problems,” says the ex-combatant, who says he has had eight girlfriends since his injury.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project