A Body That Knows the Truth, and a Soul That Chooses to Live
When the war burst into the lives of millions of Ukrainians on 24th February 2022, Diana was thousands of miles away on the sunny island of Tenerife. She had gone there for peace and waves, to do some surfing. But at half-past five in the morning, her world shattered. Not from the wail of sirens, but from a barrage of messages on her phone.
"I woke up and felt terribly ill," she recalls. It was no exaggeration. Her body, like a wise seismograph, reacted to the tectonic shift in her reality before her mind could even grasp the scale of the catastrophe. The feeling of deep, paralysing shock was so physical that her body simply shut down. As a result of acute stress and dehydration, she ended up in intensive care.
"My body is so much cleverer than me, because it reacted to the minute. I didn't know yet, I couldn't believe it. I messaged my friends, they confirmed it, and I felt even worse. I remember lying there on an IV drip, trying to come back to life, with my phone in my hand."
This surreal image — a girl on a drip in a Spanish hospital, already coordinating the evacuation of her friends from shelling — became a metaphor for the months that followed. Her body was pleading for rescue, but her spirit was already on the frontline, saving others.
A Lost Paradise in the Heart of Kyiv
Just a day before, her life had been perfect. After years spent abroad in London and the USA, she had returned to Ukraine and fallen in love with it all over again, completely and irrevocably. Her new flat in Kyiv was not just a home, but her personal universe, her fortress.
"I just fell in love with Ukraine; it was the best place to live. I had just finished the renovation, hung all the paintings; everything was so perfect that I thought, 'This is it, this is my place.' I got a dog. I felt like I was finally at home."
She had a successful startup, a wonderful team, and plans for a future that seemed cloudless. Her American friends had been warning her about a possible invasion since December, urging her to get her family out. But she waved them off. "I was like, 'Oh, no, I've got a startup, everything's set up, the whole team is here. This is not in my plans.' I didn't believe these rumours," she remembers. Her sense of security and control over her own life was so absolute that war seemed like something from another reality.
Volunteering at the Limit of Human Capacity
From the first hours of the invasion, Diana turned her phone into a fully-fledged volunteer headquarters. Using her numerous international contacts and impeccable reputation, she began to help. At first, it was about coordinating people fleeing the war. But very quickly, the tasks became incredibly complex.
"Every day we had a new challenge. Finding suppliers for body armour, understanding their specifications, arranging the paperwork, finding accounts to transfer money to because the Ukrainian ones were blocked... I never let go of my phone. I fell asleep with it, I woke up with it. It had never been like that before."
These two months turned into a non-stop marathon of incredible tension and selflessness. She worked on adrenaline, completely ignoring her own needs for sleep and food. "I didn't analyse; I didn't sit down and think. Problems had to be solved," she says.
The turning point that pulled her out of this exhausting cycle was a conversation with her Irish investor. He didn't ask about body armour. He asked about her. "He gave me a cold shower when he said, 'What are you going to do next? You need to take care of yourself.' And he asked questions that forced me to stop." Diana realised she needed to think about where she would live next.
Returning to Life: London, Art, and Courage
The decision to come to London was impulsive, almost instinctive.
"I arrived on Thursday, and on Friday, I went to an art fair. I had nowhere to live, but I was buying art," Diana laughs. "I arrived in jeans and a T-shirt because I had no other clothes, but I was like, 'Blimey, this is brilliant, this is an option.'"
This act became her personal manifesto. She began to create her world right here and now, filling it with beauty even when the foundations of that world were still shaky. Despite the difficulties of finding a place to live without a credit history, she managed this too. "I finally took responsibility for my own comfort," she says. Her new home in a multicultural area of London became her place of strength.
Her professional path was also swift. Diana quickly found a job, but after just a year, she realised that money wasn't the most important thing. The experience of the war taught her to value what cannot be measured financially: a healthy environment and good people. She made the brave decision to change jobs for a better team and a better work-life balance. "I realised I couldn't work somewhere where there's no moral balance. The main factor for me in a job is the team itself," she states firmly.
But perhaps the most important anchor keeping Diana in London is her community. She intuitively built a circle of friends around her that is a microcosm of the city itself — vibrant, diverse, and international.
"We were sitting at a table in a Brazilian restaurant recently, and I looked around: there were people from all corners of the world at the table. It's such a buzz! I love how everyone brings something of their own. I consider myself a full part of this."
This sense of belonging to a global community became a powerful source of energy for her. She faced "survivor's guilt" but was able to transform it into powerful motivation. "I realised I have to live this life to the fullest. For myself and for those who can't. The main value that keeps me afloat is my inner strength," she says.
Diana's story is a chronicle of incredible resilience and transformation. It is a journey from total physical and emotional collapse to a conscious choice to live a life filled with purpose and beauty. Like an experienced architect, she has built a new reality for herself in London: a reliable home, a fulfilling job, and an inspiring community. And this solid foundation allows her not just to stand on her own two feet, but to look confidently into the future, planning new projects and dreaming.
