Charlotte Gallagher

He was a very kind man.

The war broke his mind.

He took his own life in a military hospital after being injured in battle.

I hear women say, my husband died a hero, but yours, he did it himself.

Like the other women we spoke to, Maryana was denied compensation and couldn't bury him with honors.

She now feels judged by other widows.

Olya Reshetilova is Ukraine's first military ombudswoman.

She says she receives reports of three to four suicides a month and concedes that number could rise as the war continues.

She is pushing for stronger psychological support for soldiers and changes to how cases of suicide are investigated and documented.

She believes Ukrainian society has a part to play in properly honoring all victims of war.

As Ukraine approaches another new year of conflict, those who have lost relatives on the battlefield will again remember their sacrifice, while those families touched by suicide in this war will continue their fight to be heard and to have their loved ones honoured.

That was Anastasia Grubinova reporting from Kiev.

Still to come in this podcast.

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The amount of victims in such a short time was unbelievable.