On her wedding day, Tetiana, 31, nearly fell out of bed as Russian rockets landed near her home in central Ukraine. “At first I thought it was thunder, but the sky was clear, and I realized it was bombing,” she tells AFP.
Surprised by the destruction wrought by the pre-dawn explosions and determined to continue with her ceremony, the designer and her husband, Taras, were married six hours later that day.
Tetiana, who asked that her name be changed so she would not be identified, explains why she didn’t give up: “I initially thought we should cancel, but my fiancé said we should continue; the war doesn’t have to ruin our plans, we have the right to form our family and live a full life.”
The couple’s marriage is part of the marriage explosion in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. Taras proposed to Tetiana, her neighbor since the age of 6, last year. They planned the spring wedding.
“In May, we saw that the conflict could last a long time, and we decided not to postpone life because, as the war revealed, later on we may not return,” he says. In the Poltava region, where Tetiana and Taras made their union, there have been 1,600 marriages in the first six weeks since the Russian offensive on 24 February.
the war continues
The increase in capital is even more pronounced. There are 9,120 marriages registered in the first five months, a number seven times greater than the 1,110 marriages that took place in the same period in 2021.
“Marrying during the war is the most courageous and difficult step that can be taken, because we don’t know what will happen”, comments Vitali, 25. His intention is to marry Anastasia, 22, before going to war. Couples have taken advantage of the simplification of bureaucracy, which allows for immediate marriage without the long wait.
Vitali and Anastasia had vague notions about how to make the commitment official and discovered everything before the wedding. “The war continues, it’s better to get married now”, says the groom.
Since early March, Vitali Tcharnikh, a civil servant, has held back-to-back ceremonies and sees his service as a special contribution to the war effort. “I believe I can help my country by emotionally supporting Ukrainians,” he reports.
challenging message
The movement is not uncommon. At the height of World War II in 1942, the US recorded 1.8 million marriages in a year, an 83% increase compared to the previous decade.
Vitali says there is an increase in the marriages of soldiers in Ukraine. “In such difficult times, we don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow, so they’re looking forward to getting married as soon as possible.”
Yoga teacher Daria Steniukova, 31, was planning to marry Vitalii Zavalniuk, 30, but war broke out a day earlier. A Russian missile devastated their city, Vinnitsia, and left 26 dead. In addition to her apartment, the registry office was also damaged.
“We were shocked, but we decided to move on. We wouldn’t give up. My house was in ruins, but our lives weren’t,” he says. Steniukova says none of the registry offices had space, “but we decided to continue, even though we were told it was impossible.”
“We were ready to wait all day, but they attended to us quickly: we were married three minutes after arriving”, adds the teacher. The union was marked in an unusual but eye-catching way, with photos taken in the bride’s bombed-out apartment.
“It was a challenging message for the whole world to say how strong we Ukrainians are. We are ready to get married even with rockets flying over our heads.”
