Yana Smaglo, a Ukrainian fashion designer, had to flee her home in Kyiv when the war broke out in 2022. Despite losing everything, she found refuge and opportunity in the UK, where she has successfully rebuilt her fashion business.
Three years after moving from her native Kharkiv to forge a new path in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, Yana Smaglo was doing nicely. A gifted businesswoman with an insatiable work ethic, she had her own fashion and beauty operation, a nice apartment and an office in the city centre. Life was good. 'It was settled, nice, a comfortable life,' says Yana, who is now 32. 'I was very happy.' On 24 February 2022, shortly after 5am, everything changed.
Yana awoke to the sound of explosions; the long foreshadowed war with Vladimir Putin's Russia had begun. She hurriedly called her friends to waken them. One planned to drive west, towards the border with Poland, and invited her to come along. In an instant, Yana's survival instinct kicked in. She grabbed a hat, stuffed a few belongings into a small rucksack – documents, cash, a laptop – and rushed from her home. In the most literal sense, she was closing the door on life as she knew it. 'When I left my apartment I thought that, probably, I would never see it again,' says Yana, before pausing to add ruefully: 'I also lost the business. Ukrainian fashion designer Yana Smaglo was forced to leave everything behind when the war with Russia began, but has rebuilt her life in the UK after receiving a visa Yana has established her own fashion business in the UK, which has five brands in its portfolio, more than 120 wholesale partners and, Smaglo says, a £120,000 turnover Yana poses in one of her Ukrainian-made designer coats at Almscliffe Crag, near Harrogate, Yorkshire. 'Local people really helped me as I was trying to grow the business,' she says 'It's hard to explain to yourself that, no, you don't have anything any more, you need to buy, you need to work hard,' says Yana Smaglo. 'It's hard emotionally' 'But at that moment, you're so shocked and scared, you think only about saving yourself. I understood that to save myself physically, I didn't need anythin
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