{"id":14864,"date":"2022-06-13T05:19:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T05:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=14864"},"modified":"2022-06-13T05:19:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T05:19:16","slug":"life-goes-on-as-ukraine-army-holds-war-weddings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/?p=14864&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Life goes on as Ukraine army holds war weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Mishaal Arshad C.M Underground News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>\u201cWar is war, but life goes on,\u201d a bride explains her decision to marry amid ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Couple had no family present but they said relatives had been understanding.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Young couples married in front of a registry office, which had closed due to war.<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-cnvs-separator-id-1655097388787\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Air raid sirens wailed and one of the brides wore camouflage trousers as the Ukrainian army took a break from frontline fighting in the east to hold a double wedding Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two young couples who met just months earlier while serving in the army tied the knot together Sunday in the small town of Druzhkivka, 40 kilometres (25 miles) from frontline zones where Ukrainian forces are battling Russian invaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sun shone and soldiers carried bouquets in a brief interlude from heavy fighting as Russians intensify efforts to push out Kyiv\u2019s forces in the east.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the brides, Khrystyna Lyuta, a 23-year-old contract soldier with the rank of private first class, wore camouflage trousers and army boots with a traditional red Ukrainian blouse embroidered with flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got used to this uniform,\u201d she explained of her choice of outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She met her husband Volodymyr Mykhalchuk, 28, just two months ago, when he was mobilised. They live around five kilometres from each other in the same southwestern Vinnytska region but might never have met if it had not been for the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWar is war, but life goes on,\u201d Lyuta explained their decision to marry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis was not a hasty decision,\u201d said Volodymyr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe main thing is that we love each other and we want to be together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other bride, Kristina, 23, who works in the signals corps, opted for a traditional long white dress with red folk embroidery to marry Vitaliy Orlich, also 23, a sniper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI believe that this is about creating a new family \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter where it happens or how,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The grooms both wore soldiers\u2019 uniforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The couples were set to return to serve in the war zone on the same day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t give them free days as such. The only thing is that they won\u2019t be on the frontline, they will stay in the rear,\u201d the brigade\u2019s commander Oleksandr Okhrimenko told\u00a0<em>AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Neither couple had family present but they said relatives had been understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kristina said that her husband had spoken to her mother online and \u201cshe already calls him a son\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The soldiers were from the 14th Separate Mechanised Brigade, which has been fighting Russian-backed forces in Donbas since May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The young couples married in front of a registry office, which had closed due to the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The quiet street had few cars and occasional trams. Sandbags were piled up in front of the cafe and shop windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"theres-no-time\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018There\u2019s no time\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The couples went through traditional rituals such as stepping together onto an embroidered towel, symbolising togetherness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The brigade\u2019s chaplain gave them an Orthodox Christian blessing, flicking holy water and placing crowns on their heads, on the day of a major Church holiday, the Festival of the Holy Trinity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Priest in a khaki cassock, Yuriy Zdebskiy, told\u00a0<em>AFP\u00a0<\/em>that \u201cit\u2019s the first marriage in the brigade in wartime\u201d, since Russia launched its invasion on February 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNow it\u2019s wartime and there\u2019s no time for big celebrations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The infantry brigade\u2019s commander, Okhrimenko, has the right to certify marriages under martial law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the location for the weddings \u201cwas chosen primarily for security reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Druzhkivka is about 40 kilometres as the crow flies from three fronts, as Russian troops threaten the towns of Sloviansk to the northeast, Bakhmut to the east and Gorlivka to the southeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hours later, AFP reporters heard shelling and saw smoke rising as the two sides exchanged fire close to Bakhmut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in relatively untouched Druzhkivka, shelling earlier this month tore apart private houses and crashed through the roof of a Baptist church in one street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the wedding, air raid sirens went off three times, an\u00a0<em>AFP\u00a0<\/em>reporter heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>None of those attending reacted. Many war-hardened locals now ignore warnings to go to shelters unless there is an obvious threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mishaal Arshad C.M Underground News \u201cWar is war, but life goes on,\u201d a bride explains her decision to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":14868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_appearance_grid":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,71,34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-important-news","8":"category-latest-news","9":"category-world","10":"cs-entry","11":"cs-video-wrap"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14869,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14864\/revisions\/14869"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/undergroundnews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}