Olesia Ostafiieva

Olesia Ostafiieva (born August 8, 1983, Donetsk, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian entrepreneur, PR specialist, media manager, and writer. She is the co-owner of the witch-themed bar “Lysa Hora” and the author of the book “Kira. The Way Back Home.”
*2013 — Completed an internship at Stanford University under the program “The Secrets of Silicon Valley’s Success: Theory and Practice of Investing in Tech Startups.” She visited the offices of Facebook, Google, SAP, Stanford Innovation Center, Opera, and others.
*2024 — Attended the Women Leadership Program for top female executives and business owners, MIM-Kyiv (Ukraine)
*2024 — IMD (Lausanne, Switzerland) - Lidership Essentials and Strategic Thinking
Career
*2004-2006 — Special correspondent at Donbas newspaper (Donetsk).
*2006-2007 — Business columnist at Ekonomicheskie Izvestia.
In 2023, she was appointed editor-in-chief of the new technology media ProIT.
She is a regular contributor to New Voice, Ukrainska Pravda, and KyivVlada, writing expert columns on small business challenges, regulatory and tax policy, and issues related to occupied territories.
Ostafiieva is also a co-founder of the Journalistic Investigations Agency NGO and a participant in the Business StandUp project.
Entrepreneurship
In 2017, together with her friends, The bar’s concept is based on the legend that Kyiv is the capital of witches, where religion and witchcraft have always coexisted. The venue celebrates pre-Christian traditions, shares stories about Ukrainian folklore passed down from ancestors, and offers Ukrainian cuisine with a touch of magic. The entrepreneurs recouped their investment within just eight months. Within two years, the bar was featured in several international travel guides as a must-visit spot in Kyiv.
In 2019, she and her partners launched a new venue called “LaGushka po-kyivsky,” later renamed “Khmelna Muza Art Bar.” The bar hosted literary, musical, and theatrical events.
Writing Career
In 2024, Ostafiieva published her autobiographical book “Kira. The Way Back Home”.
The book tells her personal story: she was nine months pregnant when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Just four days into the war, her maternity hospital in Kyiv region was bombed. Despite the travel ban on late-term pregnancies, she flew across the Atlantic and arrived in New York, where she actively participated in protests and talk shows in support of Ukraine. Over the course of her journey, she and her newborn daughter traveled 12 countries, 25 cities, and over 13,000 kilometers before finally returning to Kyiv.
In April 2024, the book was showcased at major international book fairs—the London Book Fair and the Leipzig Book Fair. Ostafiieva donates her book royalties to the Ukrainian charity “Voices of Children.”
On May 15, 2024, the official book launch took place at the ReadEat bookstore in Kyiv.

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