Ukrainian Couple

Ukrainian Couple

Published March 3, 2022 11:43am EST
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Yaryna Arieva discusses her and her husband's decision to move up their wedding and join the Ukrainian Army
A young Ukrainian couple has become a symbol of love and strength for the country after they decided to get married three months before their planned wedding in May when Russia began invading their homeland.
Yaryna Arieva, a 21-year-old woman wise beyond her years, told Fox News Digital that she and her 24-year-old husband, Sviatoslav Fursin, discussed getting "married in the first days of the war" if Putin invaded, but they didn't "really believe" it would happen.
When the attacks began, her mother called around to the priests she knew in the area and got one to marry the couple without an official marriage certificate, which is very unusual in Ukraine, but the priest agreed due to unforeseen circumstances.
Sviatoslav Fursin and Yaryna Arieva at their wedding ceremony. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Sviatoslav Fursin and Yaryna Arieva at their wedding ceremony. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Sviatoslav Fursin and Yaryna Arieva at their wedding ceremony. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Sviatoslav Fursin, Yaryna Arieva and their families at their wedding ceremony. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
"The hardest two days of my life [were in] the beginning of the war," Arieva told Fox News Digital, but since then, she and other Ukrainians have grown more accustomed to the sounds of explosions and news of attacks on TV.
Arieva and Fursin joined Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces immediately after their wedding. The couple is based in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital and Russian President Vladimir Putin's main target, as it houses Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A convoy of Russian military vehicles has been stalled outside the city for several days as Putin plans a government takeover.
Meanwhile, Russia has been targeting the capital with missile strikes. Arieva described two massive explosions that struck the city on Wednesday — one that woke her at 1:30 a.m. and lit up her room as if it were daytime.

Yaryna Arieva and her husband, Sviatoslav Fursin. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)

She hasn't left shelter for seven days and said civilians who are not actively fighting need a secret passcode to go outside for their own protection.
Her husband was on a combat mission with the Territorial Defense Forces on Thursday when she spoke to Fox News Digital. The forces are on the second lines, assisting the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their efforts to push back against Russian military forces out of Kyiv.
"He was completely, extremely exhausted after the last mission," Arieva said. "[H]e just couldn't find normal words to describe what he wants and what he thinks, and it was awful. He didn't sleep for two days…but he has been [in shelter] for three days, and he had a chance to take a rest a little bit. So, it was better for him…when he was taken to the next mission."

Sviatoslav Fursin. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)

She added that Fursin is "the second commander of his group" of about 15 soldiers despite not having "a lot of military experience" because "his father and his father-in-law were soldiers, and they have told him some things."
"He is very, physically, very strong, and he loves sports, and he has some knowledge about armor, so he was one of the best in his group," Arieva explained.
While Kyiv remains intact even as it is bombarded with missile attacks, southern cities are struggling more to fight off the Russian military. Kherson, a strategically important city located near the Black Sea, fell Wednesday evening to Russian forces, becoming the first major city to fall since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine last week.

A building burns after shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, March 3, 2022. Russia has launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine, hitting cities and bases with airstrikes or shelling.
((AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky))
But Arieva and Fursin are optimistic for Ukraine's future.
" People here are absolutely sure that we will win ," she said. "It's just the question of time. And also we are laughing at Russians. We are making jokes, telling anecdotes — not only about Russians but about [the] situation," she told Fox News Digital.
She described Russians as "very aggressive" and "furious" about Ukraine's strong opposition.
Arieva is a deputy city council member for Ukraine's European Solidarity party, which has expressed opposition to some of Zelenskyy's policies and the Servant of the People party, but the 21-year-old woman said she can look past that opposition now.
Yaryna Arieva and her husband, Sviatoslav Fursin. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Yaryna Arieva and her husband, Sviatoslav Fursin. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Yaryna Arieva and her husband, Sviatoslav Fursin. (Credit: Yayna Arieva)
Yaryna Arieva. (Credit: Yaryna Arieva)
"We had a lot of political arguments with…the Servant of the People party, so I didn't really appreciate his politics, but right now, I have no right to criticize him, and he is doing his best. He is protecting our country, he's doing his job, and he is really good at doing his job. So it's not time for some political intrigues…and I support him as a president of my country," she said.
Rather than honeymooning in the Maldives or Italy once the war is over, Arieva wants to smoke cigarettes, finish renovating her flat and "start a new family life" that is "calm and happy."
"And maybe, sometime, having children when I am 30 or 35, but not right now when Russia still exists on the world map," she said.
Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for FOX Business and Fox News. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.
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Anastasia Grachova, 33, and Anton Sokolov, 38, got married in a bomb shelter in their hometown of Kharkiv, Ukraine on Sunday.
The couple, who previously worked as a nurse and a dentist respectively, have been running a makeshift pharmacy together since the war started, according to a blog post written by the couple's friend and wedding guest Maria Avdeeva.
According to Avdeeva, the bride and groom posed for wedding photos amid the ruins of their hometown before walking to an underground metro station, where the ceremony took place. The metro station is currently being used as a bomb shelter, according to Getty Images.
With around 1.4 million residents, Kharkiv is the country's second-largest city . It has been left in rubble and ruins ever since Russian forces first attacked on February 27.
The metro station is the "safest place in town," writes Avdeeva, who added that the ceremony was attended by people who resided at the station, as well as the mayor.
Grachova wore a white wedding dress, a veil with a flower crown, a leather jacket, and a pair of knee-high Dr. Martens boots which were a wedding present, according to Avdeeva's post. Sokolov wore black Levi's and black boots.
As most of the couple's relatives had left the city, the bridal party was made up of volunteers from the humanitarian center where they work, according to Avdeeva.
Avdeeva posted footage from the day on Twitter. The video shows the couple taking photos and dancing on the street before the ceremony, as well as footage from the ceremony.
"Wedding in a city under constant shelling be like this: a photo zone against the background of a destroyed historical building and a bombarded city center, a ceremony in the subway," Avdeeva wrote. "This is a strong message to the world — Kharkiv is resisting and living."
In another Twitter post written by Avdeeva, she said that the bride and groom have no plans to "go on a honeymoon anytime soon."
"One day, they want to go somewhere with a beach and palm trees," she wrote. "Before that happens, there is a war to win, and brutal days ahead. But yesterday, there was hope, and beauty, and love inside the ugliness."
Avdeeva did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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Photo via @christianstreibcnn/Instagram

*First Published: February 25, 2022, 1:57 pm
According to CNN photojournalist Christian Streib, a Ukrainian couple who had planned to marry later this year decided to switch up their plans after Russia invaded , moving up their wedding date to yesterday, Thursday the 24th. The very next day, both Yaryna and Sviatoslav, a young couple in their early 20s, signed up with the Ukrainian army to defend their country against the massive armed campaign launched by Vladimir Putin.
Streib posted a photo of the wedding on Instagram, and followed up the next day with a photo reportedly from Yaryna’s Facebook page showing both of them holding guns and announcing that they had joined up to resist the invasion.
“Yesterday, I posted a picture of a young Ukrainian couple who married the day Russia invaded their country,” Streib wrote in the second post. “Today, Yaryna, 21, posted this picture on her Facebook page, proudly displaying the AK-47 assault rifles, received from the government, so she and her husband Sviatoslav, 24, can join the resistance and defend their country.”
Reports of Ukrainian civilians volunteering en masse to join the defending forces have abounded as Russian tanks work toward the Ukraine capital of Kyiv. Severely outgunned, Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have called for allies to come to their aid.
“The invasion of Russia into Ukraine is not just an invasion, it’s the beginning of the war against Europe,” said Zelenskyy in an address. “Against the unity of Europe. Against basic human rights in Europe. Against all rules of coexistence on the continent. Against the fact that European states refuse to divide borders by force.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
After multiple rounds of sanctions proved ineffective at stopping the invasion, a NATO Response Force has been activated to send supporting troops to Eastern Europe. This could include up to 8,500 U.S. troops, which were put on heightened alert by the Pentagon in January as tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated. This is the first time in history that an NRF has been activated like this.
Additionally, the U.S. has reportedly deployed or repositioned 15,000 soldiers to locations in Germany, Romania and Poland.
Reports of causalities on both sides have varied, but it’s likely that hundreds of soldiers and civilians have been killed in airstrikes and other acts of aggression. Instagram commenters worried for the brave couple stepping up to fight for their country, hoping that they would live to enjoy a happy marriage.
“Hope they can survive this together,” wrote one commenter. “Respect for their bravery.”
“Praying for Ukraine,” said another. “I really hope that his couple makes it I am very sorry this is happening.”
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