Yeva Skalietska

ABOUT YEVA SKALIETSKA

Young Ukrainian refugee who began a diary at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. She shares her experience in the publication, You Don't Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine. The book includes emotional pictures and What'sApp text messages. She will continue her diary "as long as the fighting continues".

Her grandmother raised her in Kharkiv. From her apartment, she could see "huge empty fields that lead on to the Russian border". Before the war hit, she spent her time attending parties, painting and playing ten-pin bowling.

Since her escape, she has been attending school in Ireland - a transition that requires her to learn a new language, English. She and her grandmother have since made it out of the Ukraine, but aren't sure when it will be safe to return, and the apartment she grew up in has been destroyed. Before leaving the Ukraine, Yeva gave an interview to a news reporter which became an iconic moment of the early war, and shared widely over social media. She has also been featured by the Irish Times.

She fled from home with her grandmother, Irina Skalietska, on the first day of the war. Her parents are separated and her father is settled in Russia.

She has been compared to Anne Frank for documenting her troubles and her feelings during the war.