Newlywed soldiers on Ukraine's frontline dream of growing old together: 'The main thing is to survive'

Soldiers Vitalii Orlich and his bride Kristina were wed last year in a joint ceremony with two other soldiers. Wartime weddings have continued throughout the Russian invasion in quiet ceremonies.

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• Two soldiers on the frontline of battle in Ukraine paused their military duties to get married.
• The wedding was donated and arranged by a charity that provides supplies to women soldiers.
• After a short honeymoon, the pair will return to fight in Donetsk, as they dream of growing old together.

Taking a brief pause from their frontline duties as they fend off Russian soldiers in Donetsk, two Ukrainian soldiers wed in a private ceremony to celebrate their love before returning to war.

The New York Times reported on the wartime nuptials of Maksym Merezhko and his bride, Yuliia Dluzhynska, who met prior to the invasion and enlisted in the Ukrainian army after the war began to stay as close to one another as possible — Merezhko as a soldier and Dluzhynska as a medic. 

After a brief honeymoon, "we will go to war," the outlet reported Dluzhynska said. 

The pair's modest wedding was planned and donated to them by a Ukrainian charity that typically provides supplies for female soldiers such as combat uniforms and boots. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags into its 18th month, the charity has started providing wedding ceremonies, as well. 

Representatives for Zemliachky, the charity that donated the wedding, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

"We will live," The Times reported Merezhko said after the ceremony. "We will have children, then grandchildren, and we will babysit the grandchildren. I will teach my grandchildren to fish and plant potatoes."

Dluzhynska's hope for the future was even simpler than her new husband's: "The main thing is to survive," she said. 

Ukrainian soldiers have continued organizing small wedding ceremonies during pauses in the frontline fighting in an attempt to celebrate their joy and maintain some semblance of normalcy despite the consistent sounds of bombings and air raid sirens around them.

Insider previously reported on the wedding of Khrystyna Lyuta, a 23-year-old contract soldier who married a fellow soldier just two months after meeting him during the war. 

"War is war, but life goes on," Lyuta said. 

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