Strom (a tree), vták (a bird). Those were the first Slovak words Alina Graffyová learned after arriving in Slovakia in 2017. Apart from her husband, she knew almost no one.

“I felt like a tourist at first. I knew I would live here, but I was still sad,” Graffyová recalls. Slovakia is now her home. Back in Ukraine, she worked as a journalist, but as she adjusted to a new life abroad, her profession was temporarily put aside.

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Everything changed after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Graffyová became editor-in-chief of Novyny, then a newly established Ukrainian-language news website in Slovakia. To this day, the outlet helps Ukrainians navigate everyday life, offers practical advice and gives visibility to their stories.

“It is my belief that we have helped thousands of Ukrainians. I know what it feels like to arrive in a foreign country,” she says.

She finds deep meaning in her work. “It means a lot to me not only as a Ukrainian, but also as a journalist. In a way, the news site is my child. It is a part of me,” she adds.

Her work has been noticed not only by Ukrainians living in Slovakia, but also by people back home.

Graffyová wrote about the story of 11-year-old Hasan, who arrived in Slovakia alone from Ukraine in 2022. His photograph was published by both local and international media. She was the first journalist to speak with his mother and hear the family’s story.

“They fled the war in Syria to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region (in south-eastern Ukraine – Ed. note). Then they had to flee again, this time from the Russians,” she explains. “Hasan’s mother was ill at the time and had five children. That’s why we started a fundraiser for the family.”

Hasan’s family was not the only one Novyny helped.

The village Alina Graffyová was born in. (source: Archive of A. G.)

The ever-present war

Graffyová comes from a small village near Kryvyi Rih (in south-central Ukraine – Ed. note), the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. She studied journalism in nearby Kropyvnytskyi and, after graduating, worked as a journalist. Later, she stepped away from the profession.

After her then-boyfriend finished university, the couple moved to Slovakia at the end of 2017 and married a year later. Starting over was not easy. However, in the apartment building where they lived, Graffyová met a woman from Crimea. The two became close friends, helping and understanding each other.

Alina Graffyová in Bratislava in 2018. (source: Archive of A. G.)

War has long been part of her family’s story. Her uncle died in Afghanistan at the age of 19; she knows him only from photographs. Her grandmother, too, is a child of war, having lived through what is known in the region as the Great Patriotic War (the Eastern Front of the World War II – Ed. note).

Graffyová herself experienced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine firsthand. “For us, the war began in 2014. But no Ukrainian will ever forget the start of the full-scale invasion. It cannot be erased from our lives, even if we wanted to,” she says.

“On the morning of 24 February, 2022, we woke up to a phone call from my husband’s brother. What we heard was a cold shower — a complete shock.”

Her mother, grandmother and sister remain in Ukraine. “My mother said she wanted to stay, and so did my grandmother. We have family in the Zaporizhzhia region. We used to go to the seaside there every summer. I have very fond memories of that time, and because of the war we can no longer visit part of our family,” she explains.

Life in Ukraine goes on, she says, but not as it does in Slovakia. People cannot make long-term plans and instead live day by day.

“There are no sirens or explosions in Slovakia. When I visited Ukraine, I was constantly worried. I heard planes and drones several times, especially at night. You open a window and hear them buzzing,” she describes.

Her family lives near the Dnipropetrovsk region, and she fears that Russian forces could advance there quickly. Still, people try to live as normally as possible, even as tension and stress remain ever-present.

Her most recent visit was over Easter.

Together with Novyny contributors. (source: Archive of A. G.)

Becoming a journalist again — on the day of a tooth extraction

When the invasion began, Graffyová felt compelled to act. When acquaintances came to Slovakia, she accompanied them to the foreign police to help with paperwork. While waiting for hours, she overheard a woman speaking with a journalist.

Something pushed her to approach him. She introduced herself as a Ukrainian journalist and said that although she was not currently working for an outlet, she would very much like to. They exchanged phone numbers, though she was almost certain nothing would come of it.

Two days later, Ján Pallo from the daily Sme called her. He was looking for a coordinator for a Ukrainian-language section. “That same day, I had my wisdom tooth extracted. I didn’t fully understand what was happening,” Graffyová recalls. “He asked to see some of my articles, invited me for an interview — and that’s how Novyny was founded.”

The website delivers news and practical information related to everyday life in Slovakia. Its contributors include Ukrainian journalists, students and external collaborators. For more than three years, Novyny has helped thousands of Ukrainians integrate into Slovak society.

At the beginning, Graffyová worked alone. By the end of 2022, students joined the project. Today, the editorial team has six members, and several former Novyny contributors have gone on to join the Sme newsroom.

Graffyová has worked with international organisations. (source: Archive of A. G.)

“The website operates mainly on grants,” she explains. However, funding for the second half of 2026 is uncertain. This year, the project did not receive any state support, prompting the launch of a crowdfunding campaign.

Graffyová stresses that Ukrainians also contribute significantly to Slovak society. “More than 45,000 people from Ukraine pay taxes and will contribute over €230 million to public finances this year. Without a doubt, they deserve a medium that informs them and helps them feel at home,” she concludes.

Support for Novyny is available via Donio.

Alina Graffyová

• Alina Graffyová is a Ukrainian journalist living and working in Bratislava.

• She graduated from a pedagogical university with a degree in editing educational publications.

• She has worked in Ukrainian news media.

• Since April 2022, she has been part of The Slovak Spectator (Petit Press) as coordinator of the Ukrainian-language news section.