I was born in Odessa and lived there until I moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins. Now, I’m based here, and my global flagship store is on Dover Street. My parents were in Ukraine when the invasion happened. They were there visiting my grandmother. It goes to show that no one truly believed that what has happened could have happened. Everybody thought he [Russian president Vladimir Putin] was just talking [when he indicated plans to invade Ukraine]. We thought, people don’t do this sort of thing nowadays. It will never happen.
Then, on the morning of 24 February I started receiving a lot of messages from people asking, how are your parents? I thought, what’s going on with my parents? I called my mother who said, yes, it has started. Even saying it now I get chills. They had been woken at 5:30am by bombs falling around Odessa.
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My parents stayed with my grandmother until my cousin could get there to be with her. Then my parents made their way to the border through Moldova. I spoke to them on the phone as they were approaching at around 2:30am, and my mother told me there was a line of cars about three or four kilometres long leading up to it. I spoke to her again at 9am the following morning, and they were in exactly the same place. Finally they crossed the border at around 7pm. It’s a nightmare.
Now it has been over three weeks of war. It’s surreal, the time passes so quickly. Every day I am thinking of ways to help. We decided as a company to buy some of the things that people fleeing their homes would need the most from Amazon. While we were waiting for the goods to be delivered we posted about it on Instagram, and then other people started donating too. We have people in Ukraine helping us: we paid for their petrol and they came to the border to meet our van. They took the goods back to Chernivtsi, where they are being distributed directly to those in need.
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As a fully recognised representative for the Red Cross of Ukraine with a direct focus for the Odessa Region, I can now purchase urgently needed medical essentials at wholesale prices from pharmaceutical companies. One hundred per cent of the donations are going directly to the Ukrainian refugees who need it – nothing is being held back to pay for services, or to fund volunteers. We are also busy making people aware of what we’re doing on social media to help raise funds.
Friends in Ukraine have messaged me to say thank you for simply getting the word out there, and helping to make the situation visible. People in Odessa say knowing others elsewhere in the world want to support them is giving them strength. In my flagship store on Dover Street we had a little pink cafe, but the team has repainted it in yellow and blue, the colours of the Ukrainian flag. The response to what’s happening makes me proud – I’m proud every day to be Ukrainian. This war must be stopped.
You can donate to the fundraiser here.