Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.
Gambling has been a wartime challenge going back to the American Revolution, when George Washington warned against it.
In Ukraine, gambling addiction is on the rise as soldiers like Taras relapse due to stresses of war.
Few would be surprised that Taras*, who spent 18 months on the frontlines storming enemy trenches, is in therapy.
After all, he still has shrapnel lodged so close to his carotid artery that doctors have refused to remove it.
But the main reason he is in therapy is for betting on football.
When Taras’ wife found out about the debt his gambling had racked up, they fought until they ran out of words, and considered a divorce.
The ties binding them together were tested.
“We have two kids, you know…” Taras trails off, pausing before continuing.
They would find a way to pay off the loans, she decided, but in exchange he had to stop gambling and lying to her about the debt.
Until a few months ago nobody really knew how common stories like Taras’ were among servicemen in Ukraine.
On March 29th a petition authored by a soldier, Pavlo Petrychenko, called for the president to deal with the proliferation of gambling in the military.
Some servicemen had been found to gamble away all their money; others turned to pawning military gear...
The gambling sites may also pose a national security threat: many are Russian owned, and could exploit the data of Ukrainian servicemen.
Less than a month later, Zelenskyy enacted new rules regulating gambling sites, limiting online advertising and establishing caps on weekly gambling.
But Pavlo Petrychenko, the author of the petition, had been tragically killed in action 5 days beforehand.
The Counteroffensive spoke to psychologists to understand what really happens in the brain of a gambling addict, and why it has become such a widespread problem in the military.
The lifestyle that comes with military work is often unpredictable, and, contrary to what one might expect, mind-numbingly boring.
For servicemen that are in combat positions, the intensity that comes with living near the frontline is combined with monotonous waiting.
The other category of gambler is the understimulated gambler.
This includes servicemen away from the frontline in non-combat positions, who conduct repetitive administrative work, are often away from their family and similarly have no time off.
