For Diana Vakulenko from the village of Pokrovske, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the full-scale invasion divided her life into “before” and “after.” Instead of a carefree youth and a dream graduation, there was dancing in front of a bombed-out school, a lost family business, and forced relocation. Today, the girl is studying at Uzhhorod National University and starting life with her family from scratch, retaining hope of returning home.
"The front was approaching, and we decided to leave"
Before the Great War, Diana had a normal, carefree life: studying, dreaming of a career in the media, and just wanting to be close to her family. In the early days of the invasion, their town was still relatively calm, although tensions were constantly rising.
“We heard the first explosions two weeks later. My brother and I were at home when the explosion went off almost right next to our street. It was the scariest thing, because that’s when I realized how close this horror was,” the girl recalls.
| The attack on Pokrovsky in the Dnipro region on the night of October 20, 2025. Photo: Vladyslav Haivanenko/Telegram, State Emergency Service of Ukraine
With the onset of autumn, the village came under daily nightly shelling—the front line was only 20 kilometers away. Diana, who had already become a student by then, came home for a week to pack her things. This trip became one of her most difficult tests.
"That night the explosions were so loud that I was really scared. A Russian drone was flying over our house. There have been cases in the village where drones have targeted houses simply because of the occupiers' suspicions. When I heard it flying almost near my window, I thought of the worst."
Night calls and moving to Zakarpattia
After school, the girl entered a university in Slovakia. But the distance did not save her from constant anxiety for her relatives, who remained under shelling.
"The scariest moment is when my mother calls at night and says that their business has been destroyed. The flight arrived about 20 minutes ago. I'm a thousand kilometers away from them, I realize that there could be a second strike. I didn't sleep until morning because I was so worried."
| Damage from the attack on the village on November 4. Photo: Suspilne Dnipro
The family eventually decided to reunite in a safer region of Ukraine. Diana recalls that she first visited Uzhhorod when she was applying to the Slovak consulate. She liked the city very much, so the family chose Zakarpattia.
I had to start everything from scratch: my parents lost their business, I had to find a job and a new school for my younger brother in a crowded city. However, the hardest part was the constant moral pressure.
“You’re waiting for a call just to talk, and in response you get: ‘My house is destroyed.’ It’s very difficult to go through and realize that all of this is so real and happening in my life.”
The dog who lost his home twice
Diana heard her first story about the war from refugees from Hulyaipol. At that time, she could not yet imagine that she would later have to leave her home. In March 2022, the girl's family sheltered a dog that people had left behind while fleeing the fighting in Zaporizhia.
| Archival photos of Diana Vakulenko with a dog rescued by her family
"They were twins - a girl and a boy. We adopted the boy. He became a real member of our family, was always there and seemed to understand everything. He tried to help in everything. The most painful thing was leaving him. Our dog left his home for the second time: the first time he left Hulyaipol, and now - from Pokrovsky. Now he is with our relatives, we are far from each other, and I really want to see him and play with him."
Graduation in ruins
The war cruelly took away the dream graduation party from Diana and her classmates. Instead of joyful memories, there was the pain of losing their homes.
"I remember those mornings when I woke up to my mother's words that the school was destroyed... Since the first grade, I imagined my graduation, looked at the dresses of the older girls, and dreamed of my own. But who would have thought that it would take place against the backdrop of ruins? My class and I were dancing a waltz, and behind us was the completely destroyed school. We couldn't hold our last lesson in our native classroom, because only one wall remained of it."
| Diana’s graduation photo from her home school. Archive photos
Despite all the losses, Diana remains strong and continues to confidently step forward. "Even though we left a part of ourselves in the past, we have to move on, start again. And maybe one day we will still have the opportunity to be home again," she concludes.