Ukrainian Professor Blinded In Russian Missile Attack: My Sight Has Been Saved Thanks To The Post

A Ukrainian teacher who was blinded in a missile attack at the start of the Russian invasion has had her sight restored thanks to Mail on Sunday readers.

Shocking photos of Olena Kurylo’s bloodied face were seen around the world after a missile exploded outside her apartment near Kharkiv just hours after Vladimir Putin’s troops marched in last February. The 53-year-old mother was left with a glass lodged in her right eye and hundreds of small fragments embedded in her skin.

The MoS helped her get to Poland, where she underwent three operations to preserve her eye and prevent a potentially fatal infection. Polish doctors placed pins in the detached retina and filled the eye with silicone oil, but then struggled to remove the oil without loosening the retina.

Thanks to incredible donations from the Mail Force, the money for Olena’s eye surgery was raised within 24 hours.

In August they concluded that the vision in his right eye could not be saved. But the MoS refused to give up, securing £10,000 in donations from our Mail Force charity to fund Olena’s treatment with consultant eye surgeon Tom Williamson at the world-leading Center for Sight in London.

His vision has now been restored after a 45-minute operation in which Professor Williamson removed the oil without tearing his retina.

He expected to have 50 per cent vision in that eye, but he has 75 per cent, enough to take a driving test in the UK. Professor Williamson said: ‘Olena has very good vision, considering the trauma she had. Much better than she expected. She will not need any more operations and she will be able to live without limitations.’

Olena, who was warned that there was a one in ten chance that the surgery would fail, wept to hear that it had been successful. Embracing Professor Williamson, she said: “You cannot understand the joy you have given me.”

It means that now you can start planning for your future. Speaking from her host’s home in north London, organized by the charity Refugees At Home, Olena said she hoped to teach nursery children.

This weekend, British Airways took her to Poland, where the MoS had rented a flat, to recuperate. Thanks to British law firm Mishcon de Reya, who worked for a free visa through the Homes For Ukraine scheme, she is able to teach in the UK.

Olena Kurylo with professor of eye surgery Tom Williamson on their last appointment after successful eye surgery

Ukrainian teacher Olena Kurylo was blinded during a missile attack

‘They have given me back my life. The Mail on Sunday has given me this opportunity,” she said. ‘I want to thank the newspaper and all the readers who donated money. I can’t imagine what I would look like now if The Mail on Sunday didn’t save me.

She plans to set up a charity that matches Ukrainian orphans with parents whose own children have been murdered.