As a child, Olga wanted to be a doctor. By the time of high school, she had become interested in the Ukrainian language and literature, so she decided to enter the Faculty of Philosophy at Kharkiv University. Olga went on to work in Kharkiv as a qualified educator until the Russian invasion. Now she continues to work in her field in Prague.

Olga arrived in the capital of the Czech Republic at the beginning of March 2022. It took about a week to recover from the shock displacement and to receive the necessary documents. After this, she immediately started looking for a job.

"There is no door that I would not knock on," Olga recalls. She sent out her resume as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature everywhere she could. Unbeknownst to her, someone sent her CV on to the Slavic Institute of the Academy of Sciences, the existence of which Olga had also not been familiar. Resultingly, she now works within its walls as a researcher engaged in two projects. The first is a Ukrainian-Czech dictionary; Olga proofreads its Ukrainian version. The second is a study of the interwar emigration of Czechoslovakia during Masaryk's time.

Olga also works at Charles University teaching Ukrainian to Czechs. Not knowing Czech at the beginning of her teaching was not a problem. Previous to the full-scale Russian invasion, Olga taught Ukrainian in her country to many nationalities. Therefore, her method of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language to international students had already been established.

What's next? Olga says that she used to make plans, right up to February 23rd., 2022. No planning these days. "When I came to Prague and could just straighten my back and look at the calm sky, I went and photographed it. I began to appreciate simple moments more. Before the invasion, we did not know that this is happiness. So I want to live and enjoy life," Olga says.