[2] Pochkalova learnt fencing in Lviv under Zoriana Savruk, then Andriy Orlykovskyi, who also trained Olympic champion Yana Shemyakina.

She joined in 2008 the national senior team and took part in her first World championships in Beijing, where Ukraine finished 13th.

[1][3] She was part of the Ukrainian team that won the gold medal at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade.

[4] She reached the semi-final in the senior World Fencing Championships after defeating reigning Olympic champion Britta Heidemann, but fell to Russia's Lyubov Shutova and came away with a bronze medal.

After a disappointing 2013–14 season, she won at Legnano her first World Cup competition after defeating Romania's Ana Maria Brânză in the final.