With a gunshot wound to his lung, Oleksandr Ponomariov crawled around
the grass near Krasnyi Lyman in Donetsk Oblast, still trying to fend off
the attacking Russian-backed insurgents.
At that moment, Ponomariov could hardly imagine himself as a groom in the next 10 days. But that’s what happened.
“He thought he would die in the next few hours,” his new wife, Olena Ponomariova, 29, says, as she sits on the bench in a hospital park while her husband was napping.
Too weak to speak much, with his lower body still paralyzed, Ponomariov married his true love on July 9. Volunteers supplied the rings, the bride’s gown and treats for the guests.
“My husband smiles every time he sees a ring on my finger,” Ponomariova says and adds she is very grateful to the volonteers.
The soldier’s reconnaissance group came under shelling on June 30 when moving deeper into enemy territory. Ponomariov, 32, was shot first. The bullet went through the ribs, spine and lungs. He kept fighting for another hour until help arrived to repulse the attack. He was evacuated by helicopter to Kharkiv for surgery and then to Kyiv.
“He lost so much blood; he was dragged away from death by his ears,” says Ponomariova tearfully. She is a soldier herself, mobilized in early March, but she was never sent to the country’s eastern front.
The couple lives in Mykolayiv. They met four years ago in the army. Ponomariov proposed many times, but never found time for the wedding ceremony until July.
At least 270 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and more than 922 injured since the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Olena Yarysh, a 24-year-old from Mykolaiv, says she remembers when her husband Ruslan Yarysh, 23, left home for the front. “We were back from shopping and, at 5 p.m. he got a call to get back to his military unit,” she says.
They were reunited in Kharkiv hospital’s intensive care unit. Yarysh’s husband was sleeping after the surgery when doctors let her in. “He was so motionless, all in bruises,” the young woman recalls. “The doctor shook him and asked who is here. He opened his eyes, said ‘this is my sunshine’ and closed them again.”
Soldier Ruslan Yarysh was shot in the lungs on June 19 by a sniper. “My bad, wasn’t attentive enough,” he says, lying in the hospital bed and twisting his wedding ring. His both legs put on holders, his body covered in bandages. The ring is a new addition.
Olena and Ruslan Yarysh also got married on July 9, in the same hospital room as Olena and Oleksandr Ponomariov.
“This time I proposed to him,” Olena Yarysh laughs, noting that her husband was worried about his new disabilities. “This is not even a question for me, I love him with all my heart,” she says.
Yarysh doesn’t leave her husband’s side and says he is a perfect match. The couple met at work in Mykolaiv. “In two weeks my little daughter was calling him father,” Yarysh recalls, smiling at the memory.
She plans to go home in a few days and take her daughter to Kyiv. “She misses him tons and I want her to know that her father is a hero,” the woman says.
Yarysh and Ponomariov have similar injuries and dream of a surgery in Israel. Some 100,000 euros need to be raised for the medical treatment, however. “I know there they can get them back on their feet even if there is only a tiny possibility,” Ponomariova says.
Ruslan Yarysh isn’t thinking much about the future now or complaining about the war. He is grateful to those who help him. “All these people don’t know me, but help all the time, bring money, food and even made this wedding,” he says.
The new brides hope people will remember to help Ukraine’s injured heroes. “I am not sure that what we did will inspire other couples,” Ponomariova says sadly. “I just hope women will at least stop breaking up with the soldiers here.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: More than 920 Ukrainian soldiers have been injured in Russia’s war against Ukraine. These two victims need money for expensive spinal cord surgery in Israel. The following are bank details of both couples and their contact information.
Privat Bank Card
5168 7572 5335 6457
Receiver: Ponomariova (Prusovska) Olena Volodymyrivna
Account number: 29244825509100
Bank code: 305299
Enterprize code: 14360570
TIN: 3157523441
Contact number: 093-362-25-52 (Olena Ponomariova, wife)
Privat Bank Card
5168 7572 2128 0433
Receiver: Maksymenko (Yarysh) Olena Grygorivna
Account Number: 29244825509100
Bank code: 305299
Enterprize code: 14360570
Contact number: 0936673783 (Olena Yarysh, wife)
