Ivan Soroka lost his sight after he was hit by shrapnel during fighting in Bakhmut.
After being blinded by a Russian mortar shell, Ukrainian veteran Ivan Soroka could not see his bride when she walked into his family home in a shoulderless white dress, with a bouquet of white flowers in her hand.
Dozens of guests sat around a garden table in Bortnychi village under a tent decorated with balloons and garlands for a day of festivity steeped in Ukrainian rural tradition.The Associated Press first met Mr Soroka at a rehabilitation camp for ex-soldiers who lost their vision in combat. The courtship was not unusual in wartime Ukraine. Throughout the capital, young men with prostheses hold hands with their partners and family members.
Only six weeks after they met, they were having a coffee together during one of Mr Soroka’s short leaves from the front when Mr Soroka proposed. But his unit was moved to Bakhmut in the Donetsk region for the war’s longest and bloodiest battle. They began their retreat at night. By the light of dawn they were shelled by Russian troops. Mr Soroka’s eyes were struck with shrapnel. His leg was also wounded, but did not need to be amputated.
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