For ten years, Alina lived in the occupied part of Donbas, where the Ukrainian language gradually disappeared from school, and she had to conceal her own views. When she decided to apply to a Ukrainian university, she began secretly catching up on the language, literature and history. She acquired the necessary knowledge through lectures on video-hosting platforms and social media. 

In 2024, Alina and her sister left for Kyiv. There, she enrolled at university, started working, switched to Ukrainian and began living the life she could only dream of under occupation. Now she wants to combine management with design and, in the future, help rebuild the liberated territories.