TALAKIVKA, Ukraine -- Ruslan and his partner of 20 years, Svetlana, have had plenty of opportunities to tie the knot but somehow never got around to it before.
On Feb. 20, the two finally got married inside a picturesque Orthodox Christian Church at the town of Talakivka, a few kilometers from the front lines where Ruslan is a captain in a Ukrainian volunteer battalion preparing for an anticipated onslaught by Russian-backed separatists.
Ruslan is responsible for intelligence and reconnaissance along part of the front lines near Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol held by his 37th Mechanized Infantry Battalion. He and his bride asked for their family names not to be used in the article because they fear that pro-Russian sympathizers may try to harm their families.
Ruslan joined the all-volunteer unit when it was formed last September to support his country’s regular forces struggling to stem the pro-Moscow rebels equipped by Moscow with huge quantities of weapons and beefed up by regular Russian troops. In recent weeks Ruslan’s sector has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the conflict, which began last spring.
Ruslan and his bride live near the city of Zaporizhya in eastern Ukraine, where the battalion was formed. Like many others in the unit, Ruslan, 40, had previously served in the regular Ukrainian army. He has seldom seen Svetlana since last September and decided earlier this month to pop the question.
He said: “I love her and in the present circumstances of war you never know what’s going to happen. I wanted to make our relationship right before God.”
A soldier stands guard outside the Feb. 20 in the town of Talakivka, near Mariupol, where Ukrainians fear a Russian attack in coming weeks.
Svetlana, 37, wore a smart grey dress and a white veil to the ceremony. She also had to wear her coat as the unheated church was almost as chilly as the -10 C temperatures outside.
She said: “I think every woman is happy to marry the man she loves. Of course war makes you think about and appreciate more the people you care for but in ordinary times take for granted.”
Only a few guests could attend. Most of the men, including Ruslan, were dressed in combat fatigues. His best man was a comrade from his outfit. Another friend unslung his AK 47 automatic rifle and propped it in a corner of the church.
The best man and Svetlana’s bridesmaid held crowns over the heads of the bride and groom – symbolising the couple are as noble as a king and queen on their wedding day – and the priest pronounced them man and wife.
But the unspoken reason for their marriage, just days before Ruslan and other Ukrainian soldiers expect to be attacked, hovered unbidden in the chilled air: Svetlana’s husband might be dead or wounded before this month is out. Even the area around the church was thought so dangerous that Ruslan and Svetlana decided their teenage daughter should not attend.
Svetlana’s emotions swelled and the traditional Orthodox thin, yellow candle she held slipped out of her hand and she fainted. The priest completed the ceremony after she was revived with a glass of water.
As the couple stepped outside into the sun, the bells in the church tower started to ring joyfully. And then, as if scheduled by some malignant script, the explosion of shells fired from the rebel positions sounded near the Ukrainian lines.
A colonel from the battalion presented the couple with a bouquet of flowers and they went to a private house for lunch with the handful of friends that had been able to attend.
After several hours Ruslan and his comrades headed back towards the sound of the guns while Svetlana, radiating sadness, set off for the home where she would wait anxiously for the return of her husband.
Askold Krushelnycky is a former Kyiv Post chief editor.
