Daria, an 18-year-old from Ukraine, left the Russian-occupied Crimea and moved to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, where she is now studying at a university. She was born in the Kurman district of Crimea and grew up under Russian occupation, which began in 2015. Daria never attended a Ukrainian school and learned the language on her own, in secret, while attending school in Russia. In the spring of 2026, she left Crimea and arrived in Kyiv, where she was greeted with the phrase "Welcome to Free Ukraine." The moment overwhelmed her emotionally, as she felt a strong sense of safety and belonging for the first time. Daria moved to Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, as a child and attended a school where Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian were offered as optional subjects. She often visited friends from Crimean Tatar families, who welcomed her warmly. Her mother moved her to Russia after the fifth grade, and it was there that Daria realized she could not suppress her Ukrainian identity. During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when she was 14, she felt distressed, worrying for her friends still in Ukraine and feeling guilty for being in Russia at the time. After returning to Crimea, she lived with her older sister and later tried to enroll in a Ukrainian philology program, but faced challenges due to limited spots and the requirement to pass a Russian language and literature exam, which she had not taken. In Kyiv, Daria noticed that many people still spoke Russian, which frustrated her. She had missed the language during her time in Crimea and Russia, and she spent about a year preparing to leave Crimea. She reached the age of majority on April 25 and decided to leave on May 18, a date that coincided with the commemoration of the deportation of Crimean Tatars, a historical event that marked the forced removal of the Crimean Tatar population by the Soviet Union in 1944. Daria has been gradually adjusting to life in free Ukraine, though she still misses Crimea. She has received support from her fiancé, Matvii, who is also from Crimea. They met at Tavria University in Simferopol and now study together at the relocated Tavria National University in Kyiv. Matvii is studying political science, while Daria is pursuing a degree in psychology. The couple plans to get married in the future.