From Euromaiden Press: Good morning World! Good morning Ukraine!
During the full-scale war in Ukraine, over 170,000 people have got married, which is almost 25% more than in the previous year. Lesia and Vladyslav are one of these couples.
“That morning we woke up in a different world,” says 46-year-old Lesia Lytvynova. On February 25, Lesia and Vladyslav stood in a queue before one of Kyiv’e recruitment centres… until nightfall.
“It was the only thing we could do,” she says.
For 15 years, Lesia worked at STB and Inter TV channels. In 2014, she created the Frolivska 9/11 volunteer center to help IDPs. Her charity foundation Svoyi provides palliative care and oxygen concentrators to patients. Lesia has five children: Anastasiya, 26, Polina, 22, Vitaliy, 13, Varvara, 8, and Solomiya, 2. Vladyslav is from Donetsk and left his hometown at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This is their second marriage. Neither has any military experience.
At first, they served in a rifle company. Then it was disbanded. Lesia was transferred to communications and Vlad to a sapper unit. When a vacancy appeared, Lesia asked to be transferred to her husband’s unit. The commander told the couple that husband and wife shouldn’t serve together. If something happens to one parent, the other parent can look after the children.
“But for both of us, it was impossible to be separated. We need to be together. According to the law, I don’t have to serve. But there aren’t enough people. I don’t want my children to be next. We have to finish this now. Otherwise, our children will have to deal with it again and again.”
Lesia and Vlad serve together in an engineer platoon of the 207th Battalion of the Territorial Defense Force.
Photo: savelife.in.ua/donate
Voice of Ukraine 