From Kyiv to Kelowna: Artist documents journey to B.C. following Russian invasion of Ukraine in new book

When Stefania Miro awoke on Feb. 24, 2022, she felt like she was living in a different reality. 

Her home city of Kyiv had become a war zone overnight as Russian forces invaded Ukraine. 

"That morning started with explosions and with a missile attack from Russia, and everybody, like all my relatives, started calling me," she told Chris Walker, the host of CBC's Daybreak South.

Now, she's living peacefully in Kelowna, B.C., where she's just published an illustrated memoir documenting her life as she fled Ukraine and ultimately landed in Canada. 

Before the invasion, Miro worked as an illustrator and artist and had just been offered a job by a Chinese company. The job fell through when the conflict began. 

"My whole life, everything that I was working so hard [for], just disappeared in one moment."

The day after the invasion, Miro knew she wanted to leave the country. But it was hard to get out — public transportation was not operating, and it was a challenge to get to the train that could take her out of the city. 

Finally, she got out one week after the invasion started, with plans to journey to Kelowna, B.C., where her aunt had offered Miro and her mother a safe place to live. 

Revisiting such a traumatic experience wasn't easy; Miro said she started recording and writing everything she remembered from Feb. 24, 2022, until the day she got to B.C. soon after her arrival in Canada. 

"I feel the details are super important and they help also to feel the atmosphere and all that happened on a more deeper level," she said. 

Illustrating the book was tough, she said, because it brought up those vivid memories.

"I like to draw the illustrations, but I remember it was also a painful process, and it brought lots of tears from me," Miro said. "I tried to make those illustrations very dramatic and to convey the atmosphere of the events. So it was painful, but I also hope that it's helpful for people."

Miro said she found the writing and illustrating experience therapeutic. 

Now, living in B.C.'s Okanagan, she's trying to focus on her new reality.

"I met so many new friends and good people," she said. "I just try to focus on the good things that happened in my life here."

Her book, Light in the Darkness: Escaping the War in Ukraine, is available online.