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Diyana Alexandra Gabyak was born in Ukraine, and she grew up in the United States of America. This is the country where she went to school, got married, built her life, and gave birth to all of her children. “America is not simply the country where I live. It is my home, the nation where my family has established its roots, and the country whose future I care about deeply,” she says.

As a wife, mother, businesswoman, and co-founder of the American Ukrainian Christian Alliance, she has tried to serve this nation in several fronts. Inside the Board of Directors of National School Ministries, she advocates for Bible education for public school students across the country and is also involved in humanitarian outreach as part of the Transform Lives Global’s Board.

A graduate of Regent University and currently a master’s student at the Robertson School of Government, she is passionate about deepening her understanding of public policy, leadership, and the responsibilities of public service.

“I have the extraordinary blessing of carrying two nations in my heart: the country of my birth and the country that shaped my upbringing, my opportunities, my family, and so much of who I am today,” she reflected. “But that every blessing carries responsibility.”

What is the most updated situation in Ukraine regarding the war? What do your sources there tell you?

The situation in Ukraine remains extremely brutal, and I believe many Americans still do not fully understand the reality of what millions of Ukrainian families are experiencing every single day.

Russia continues carrying out attacks against Ukrainian cities, residential communities, energy facilities, and infrastructure essential to civilian life. As we speak, the humanitarian situation remains deeply concerning. Russian attacks continue to damage electricity and heating systems as another winter approaches.

According to the United Nations, during the first eight months of 2026 alone, at least 2,222 civilians were killed, and more than 13,000 were injured. These are verified figures, and the actual human cost may be greater.

But statistics cannot fully communicate the suffering of a nation. Behind every number is someone’s mother, father, child, husband, wife, or grandparent. Behind every destroyed building are families who once gathered around a dinner table, celebrated birthdays, prayed together, and imagined a future in their own homes.

What do you think is most important for the world to understand about the war?

What I want Americans to understand is that for Ukrainians, war is not an international political debate. It is the reality of everyday life.

Imagine waking up in the morning and not knowing whether your children will be able to complete their school day because another missile or drone attack may force them into a bomb shelter or hospital. Imagine walking into a grocery store, only to have an air-raid siren interrupt you getting groceries for your family. Imagine taking your child to a hospital and having to wait, not knowing if you will get bombed there or move into a shelter because another aerial threat has been detected. Imagine planning an ordinary family dinner while wondering whether your home will have electricity, heat, or running water to shower that evening. Or wak[ing] up in the morning in your home not bombed and alive. This is the kind of uncertainty Ukrainian families continue to experience.

When I visited Ukraine, one of the things that affected me most deeply was the realization of how differently we experience everyday life in America. Here, we often take peaceful skies for granted.

We expect our children to attend school safely. We expect hospitals to function without interruption. We expect to go to work, attend church, visit friends, and return home without having to calculate the possibility of a missile strike.

For many Ukrainians, those ordinary expectations have been replaced by uncertainty.

Have you been there since 2022, when the war started?

Yes, and after spending time in Ukraine, I returned with a profound realization: the peace we enjoy in America is an extraordinary blessing, and we should never assume it is guaranteed forever. But there is something else Americans need to understand about Ukraine.

The Ukrainian people possess extraordinary resistance, spiritual strength, and determination. They are not simply defending a piece of territory on a map.

They are defending their homes, their families, their independence, their cultural identity, their freedom of conscience, and their right to determine their own future.

Sometimes I think Americans struggle to understand why Ukrainians are so determined not to surrender.

I would ask them to imagine the same situation here. What if a foreign authoritarian power invaded the United States, occupied American territory, and demanded that our citizens accept its authority?

What if Americans were told that in order to achieve peace, we should simply surrender our independence, accept foreign control over our communities, and allow another government to determine the future of our children? Would we consider that an acceptable solution? Would we willingly surrender the freedoms and institutions that generations of Americans worked to establish and defend?

I do not believe we would.

When we met, you mentioned that there are similitudes between the war between Moscow and Kiev and the American Revolution.

The Ukrainian desire for independence lives through the same moral principles that shape our own national identity as Americans. Ukrainians want to remain free. They want the right to choose their government, preserve their language and culture, worship according to their conscience, raise their children, and build their future without being ruled by a foreign power.

Ukraine is also a very different country from the outdated image some Americans may have. Over the past three decades, Ukraine has experienced significant development in technology, entrepreneurship, manufacturing, agriculture, education, and modern infrastructure. Ukrainians have traveled extensively, studied internationally, built businesses, developed new technologies, and brought knowledge and experience back to their homeland.

Ukraine has highly educated professionals, innovative entrepreneurs, strong agricultural and industrial capabilities, and communities that have worked hard to improve their quality of life.

There have been investigations into corruption among the Ukrainian elite. In January 2023, several high-ranking officials resigned or were dismissed amidst allegations of corruption. Would you consider that a real challenge for the nation?

Ukraine has faced serious challenges, including corruption, institutional reform, and economic inequality. But these challenges should not obscure the progress its people have made or their aspirations for the future.

I genuinely wish more Americans could visit Ukraine when it is safe to do so.

I believe they would be surprised by its beauty, its cities, its churches, its cultural life, its modern development, and the hospitality of its people. And I believe they would return with a much clearer understanding of why Ukrainians are determined to protect their homeland. But beyond the destruction we can see, what concerns me most deeply is the destruction that may remain invisible for decades.

What are you referring to?

I am speaking about the psychological, emotional, and spiritual consequences of war on children. We are raising a generation of Ukrainian children who may know the sound of an air-raid siren better than the sound of an ordinary school bell.

Children whose earliest memories include bomb shelters, explosions, displacement, separation, and fear. What will these experiences mean when those children become adults? In 10 or 20 years, they will become teachers, pastors, doctors, business leaders, parents, public servants, and perhaps presidents.

Their understanding of safety, trust, authority, freedom, and human relationships will be shaped in part by what they are experiencing today. And this concern extends beyond Ukraine.

Children growing up in prolonged conflict in Israel and other parts of the world are also carrying experiences that may shape their futures and the societies they will one day lead. We must ask ourselves what kind of world we are preparing for the next generation. Are we teaching children that military aggression is an acceptable way to settle disputes between nations? Or are we demonstrating that human dignity, sovereignty, justice, and the protection of innocent life remain principles worth defending? This brings me to something I believe is essential.

Peace?

Ukraine needs peace. America needs peace. The world needs peace. But we must be very careful not to confuse peace with simply stopping the fighting at any cost. A ceasefire may temporarily silence the weapons, but a just and lasting peace must address the circumstances that allowed the aggression to occur and establish credible protections against its repetition.