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In the face of war, more couples are getting married in Ukraine. "We don't know what will happen tomorrow," says a girlfriend

2022-06-27T01:07:30.754Z


Some are soldiers and want to say yes before going off to fight. Others do it, they say, because they believe that living and loving fully is more important than ever in the face of so much death and destruction.


By Hanna Arhirova

Associated Press

When the couple woke up to the din of war on February 24, they had been dating for just over a year.

Russia was invading, and he, Ihor Zakvatskyi, realized that there was no more time to waste.

He then took out the engagement ring he had bought for her, Kateryna Lytvynenko, but hadn't felt ready to give her until that moment, and he proposed to her.

If death separates us, he thought, let it be as husband and wife.

"

I didn't want to waste a single minute without Katya knowing I wanted to spend my life with her

," Zakvatskyi, 24, said in an interview with The Associated Press as he and his 25-year-old girlfriend exchanged vows and wedding rings. this month in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

The newlyweds are part of a growing group of Ukrainian couples who are rapidly making the move to marriage due to the war.

Some are soldiers and get married just before leaving to fight.

Others simply decide to join in the determination that living and loving fully are more important than ever in the face of so much death and destruction.


Kateryna Lytvynenko, center, hugs a relative after marrying Ihor Zakvatskyi, left, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 15, 2022.Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Ukraine's wartime martial laws include a provision allowing Ukrainians, both soldiers and civilians, to ask for marriage and have the ceremony on the same day.

In Kiev alone,

more than 4,000 couples

have taken advantage of the accelerated opportunity.

Before the war, you had to wait a month. 

After a three-month break in normal service, the Central Civil Registry Office in kyiv is fully open again and operating almost at pre-war pace.

Since Russia withdrew its invasion forces from around the city in April, redirecting them to the eastern and southern front lines, many people who had fled the fighting have returned.

Weddings have increased accordingly.

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The returnees include Daria Ponomarenko, 22, who had fled to Poland.

Her boyfriend, Yevhen Nalyvaiko, 23, had to stay because of regulations that prevent men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country.

Once they were able to be together again, they were quickly married

, because "we don't know what will happen tomorrow," she said.


Yevhen Nalyvaiko holds Daria Ponomarenko minutes after their wedding in kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. Natacha Pisarenko / AP

They decided to make a very personal event, after their painful months apart, just the two of them, without friends or family.

Instead of an ostentatious wedding dress,

she wore an embroidered Ukrainian shirt

, the traditional Vyshyvanka, now chosen by many brides to emphasize her identity.

In peacetime, they would have opted for a traditional wedding with many guests.

But that seemed frivolous in war.

"Everything is perceived more clearly, you see more authentically who people are during these types of situations," he said.

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Refusing to let the invasion ruin her wedding, Anna Karpenko, 30, did as she planned: she arrived at the ceremony in a white limousine.

"Life must go on," said the young woman.

She and her new husband dated for seven years, and they usually talked about marriage, but the war made them get down to business. 

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Pavlo and Oksana Savryha had already been married for 18 years before the invasion prompted them to renew their vows, this time in a small 12th-century church in the war-torn northern city of Chernihiv.

Our souls told us to do it

.

Before the invasion, we were constantly running somewhere, in a hurry,

and the war forced us to stop and not postpone important decisions

for tomorrow,” said Pavlo.


Pavlo Savryha and Oksana Savryha were married in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Sunday, June 19, 2022. Natacha Pisarenko / AP

When Russian forces surrounded and bombarded Chernihiv, in the initial stage of the failed invasion, Oksana took refuge in the basement of her home and her husband took up arms and joined a territorial defense force. 

Later he joined the regular army.

They celebrated their love in June at the church.

The next day, he was sent to the front

.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2022-06-27

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