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Ben in Ukraine - The Big Launch of MindGuard
Field insights from deploying MindGuard with veterans and first users
Benjamin Bargetzi
May 15, 2026
The Resilient Mind
Reporting back from the Frontlines of Mental Resilience and Neuroscience
Dear
I have always believed that the true test of any hypothesis, technology, and life endeavour is how it holds up in reality and action.
Over the past weeks, this test became very concrete as we launched MindGuard with the first few dozen veterans on the ground in Ukraine.
Presenting MindGuard inside a sheltered garden-house in Kyiv to an audience of veterans, politicians, professors, and military personel of Ukraine and beyond
I spent intense time with veterans, hospitals, institutions, churches, and the very first people using our MindGuard platform dedicated to PTSD prevention. The first cohort was intentionally kept small and controlled, while a growing number of additional veterans are already waiting to be onboarded.
As of today, we have a few hundred veterans applying to MindGuard who we are now identifying, onboarding, and guiding throughout our dedicated programme in May and June 2026.
Benjamin with two Ukrainian veterans who are users of MindGuard in Kyiv
Moving carefully across Ukraine to visit different cities, hospitals, and local communities to understand where we can be of most help
Another one of our users, with an artificial leg prothesis after losing his foot to a mine at the frontlines; these brave men and women are the reason why we will never give up supporting Ukraine, and giving back to the defenders of Europe
What is the core mechanism and unique approach behind MindGuard? Well, it's very human.
Under pressure, many assumptions about ourselves, our life, and routines collapse as intention and motivation become fragile, and distractions the dominant dopaminergic response.
What heals is structure:
A small completed action; a short moment of intense sport movement; a conscious breath; or someone beside you, whether a mentor, family or peer.
This is where self-efficacy begins to grow again as a biological signal of showing yourself through your own actions and routines that “I can still act.”
Our hypothesis was that under traumatic experience, the best first step back into a structured life is to stick to healthy routines and habits, consistently across each day, tailored to the individual's possibilities and preferences, but with utmost regularity and consistent execution.
We heal through action.
Simple, repeatable routines matter far more than complexity under stress.
The most meaningful moments were often the simplest ones. As I quote it in "The End of Emptiness" (German: Nie Wieder Sinnlos) as an aphorism: "All truths are simple; but sticking to them is hard". This builds the core structural engine behind MindGuard.
Presenting MindGuard to Ukraine together with our hostess Kateryna Yatsko, a local cultural and psychological leader of the country
Despite the war, over 80+ people showed up to to our big launch event in Kyiv, and to learn more about MindGuard’s vision and our mission to help veterans
The last weeks also significantly deepened our collaboration with local hospitals, institutions, veteran communities, and partners on the ground to ensure that what we are building genuinely fits the cultural and operational realities of Ukraine.
Trust is built through presence.
Alongside this, we receive daily voice notes, emails, and messages from veterans and families expressing appreciation for the platform and for the people supporting the project behind the scenes. It has been a truly moving moment for us.
They shall never be forgotten.
The next phase is already being prepared together with scientific and institutional partners, including additional validation steps to better understand how these routines translate into measurable physiological and behavioral changes over time.
One thing these weeks reinforced very deeply for me:
People are not rebuilt through abstraction.
They are rebuilt through small repeated actions, structure, dignity, and human connection embedded into daily life.
If those structures hold, something larger becomes possible.
Not only individual stability, but families that reconnect, communities that regain trust, and societies that slowly begin to rebuild themselves again.
All my best,
- Benjamin
www.benjaminbargetzi.com
