KYIV, Ukraine — Wounded Ukrainian service members are stepping into the spotlight this winter through a Ukrainian veterans theatre troupe that treats rehearsal as part of rehabilitation. Organizers and participants say the performances offer a communal way to rebuild confidence and process trauma after combat injuries, Jan. 22, 2026.
The group, known as Veterans’ Theatre, brings together about 15 veterans with wounds — amputations, burns and blindness — for an avant-garde take on “Eneida,” the 18th-century Ukrainian parody of Virgil’s epic. In a Reuters photo essay, the rehearsals are framed as both art and reintegration, as Ukraine faces a widening need to support injured troops. Reuters has reported that tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have suffered one or more amputations during the war.
Among the performers is Andrii Onopriienko, 31, who lost both eyes when two Russian anti-tank rounds hit his position near Avdiivka in 2023, Reuters reported. He now memorizes lines by listening, and he told the news agency: “Yes, we might not have an arm, or legs, or eyes — but we aren’t giving up.”
Ukrainian veterans theatre turns rehearsal into rehabilitation
In the Ukrainian veterans theatre model, roles are designed around what each actor can do — and what each actor is ready to try next. Director Olha Semyoshkina has adjusted choreography and staging so veterans can move safely while still pushing themselves, Reuters reported.
Rehearsals have taken place at Crimean House, a cultural center in Kyiv, where shoes, crutches and prosthetics often sit just offstage. The production leans on physical theatre — stomping, shuffling and synchronized movement — set to live music rather than long blocks of dialogue.
For some veterans, the stage work runs alongside clinical care. Yehor Babenko, 27, who sustained severe burns early in the war and now works as a veterans psychologist, has been based at the TYTANOVI rehabilitation center, which says its Kyiv program pairs physical recovery with psychological support and group activities. Babenko told Reuters that major injury can push people to attempt things they never expected to do, and the Ukrainian veterans theatre gives that impulse a place to land.
Not every moment is triumphant. Veteran musician Taras Kozub, 53, who lost his left arm, told Reuters it is hard to “fool anyone while onstage,” a reminder of how exposed performers can feel in front of an audience. He also said theatre is not a remedy for every veteran.
Building on a longer cultural push
That Ukrainian veterans theatre momentum did not appear overnight. A December 2025 report by Mezha said the Theatre of Veterans premiered an experimental “Eneida” at Kyiv’s Young Theatre. And in 2024, The Guardian chronicled how veteran-led theatre and writing initiatives were emerging in Kyiv, aiming to put soldiers’ voices directly in front of civilian audiences.
Veterans’ Theatre founder Akhtem Seitablaiev, a Crimean Tatar Ukrainian actor and film director who has served in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces and Armed Forces, is also the head of the Crimean House cultural space, according to the Ukrainian Institute’s profile of Seitablaiev.
Similar ideas are taking root beyond the capital. In Lviv, the UNBROKEN rehabilitation ecosystem’s theatre-therapy project says veterans have joined professional actors in productions since late summer 2024, using voice, movement and new social roles as part of recovery.
As Ukraine confronts the long task of reintegrating thousands of wounded troops, Ukrainian veterans theatre projects like these are making a quiet argument: recovery can be physical and psychological, private and public — and, for some, it starts when the curtain rises.
