The Ukrainian teacher who lost her sight in a Russian missile attack has partially regained her sight after a complex three-hour operation.

Olena Kurylo has been told she may never see her again after her home in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was attacked just hours after the invasion began.

But after The Mail on Sunday helped her escape the beleaguered city, skilled surgeons last week succeeded in restoring a significant part of her vision.

“I felt a joy that I hadn’t felt since the beginning of the war,” the 52-year-old said after hearing the remarkable results of the operation.

“All I could think about at that time was that I could live a normal life and be useful.”

Doctors had told her she risked losing her right eye – and potentially even her life – without the operation. Amazingly, after a grueling three-and-a-half-hour operation, doctors have restored almost a third of the sight in his eye and hope it will improve further.

Heartbreaking photographs showing Olena with her injured eye bandaged and her face bloodied were released around the world last month. She was injured when a missile exploded outside her house, sending shards of glass from shattered windows into her face.

Sunday Mail reporters helped her flee to the Polish city of Katowice, where she was able to get life-saving medical treatment.

She braved the operation at the Medical University of Silesia on Tuesday with only local anesthesia. “As the surgeon took glass from under my eyelid, I heard the pieces fall into the metal plate below,” she said. “I wanted to cry but I’m Ukrainian and I have a strong spirit. Throughout the operation I kept thinking that I had become a beacon of hope for many people, so I didn’t I have no right to be weak and that gave me strength.

Olena Kurylo sits on her bed in a ward of the eye clinic at the University Clinical Center in Katowice as she awaits surgery to save her right eye after it was badly injured in a Russian bombardment on her house in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine.

The operation involved replacing the natural lens of his eye with an artificial lens, draining the fluid that had accumulated behind his eye, fixing his detached retina and filling the eye with silicone oil. Few patients get any part of their sight back after the procedure, but Olena said, “Even before they pumped the oil, I started seeing shapes and the surgeon’s hands. I started crying with happiness and said, ‘I can see.’ ‘

It was not until the next day that consultant Dr Michal Bogocz confirmed that part of his sight had been permanently restored. “It’s pretty amazing,” he told her. “No one expected you to see 30%.

The work of the surgeon is a masterpiece. Olena now faces weeks of recovery and possibly a second operation to remove the silicone. “I believe I will regain most of my vision,” she said. “I will be forever grateful to everyone who helped me.”

After being discharged from hospital shaking hands with her daughter Katya, she announced the successful operation to her husband Mykola, 54, who is still in hiding near Kharkiv.

After being discharged from hospital shaking hands with her daughter Katya, she announced the successful operation to her husband Mykola, 54, who is still in hiding near Kharkiv.

“It’s hard for me to know that he’s in danger and that I’m here,” said Olena, who is half-Russian. “And it’s hard for him that he can’t be by my side. But I want to show people that you shouldn’t give up.

“Putin can destroy material things, but he cannot destroy our minds.”

Additional reporting: Svetlana Skabo