'I Am Seeing With My Feelings': Ukrainian Soldier Blinded In War Marries

Vladyslava Ryabets celebrates her nuptials with Ivan Soroka with family and friends on the second day of their new lives together as husband and wife on the outskirts of Kyiv on September 10, 2023.

On August 2, 2022, Soroka, 27, was left permanently blinded by a Russian mortar attack. Despite his blindness, the couple have vowed to move on with their lives.

Ryabets shows the broken cell phone and blood-covered watch of her husband, Soroka.

The couple met online on April 6, less than three months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Soroka was recovering from pneumonia at a military hospital when he logged into a dating app and saw Ryabets' profile photo. "Hello," he wrote her.

Ryabets recalls how her husband was ambitious and driven while she was working with autistic children in a clinic. "You’re mine now," he told her after weeks of chatting. In response, she sent him her ring-size measurements as a joke. 

A selfie Soroka took on June 29 in the Donetsk region, two months before he was struck by shrapnel that left him blinded.

Only six weeks after they met online, they were having coffee together during one of Soroka’s short leaves from the front. "So, where is my ring?" asked Ryabets, again in jest. "It’s right here," Soroka said, as he produced the gleaming engagement ring.
 

On August 2, near the village of Horlivka, Soroka's unit received an order to withdraw. Under the cover of night, they retreated, and by the light of dawn, they were shelled by Russian troops. Soroka was struck by shrapnel that blinded him and nearly caused his leg to be amputated. "The first thing I said after I was wounded was, 'Who will want me now?'"
 

Traditional Ukrainian food sits on a table before the start of the wedding celebration.

Ryabets visited him every weekend until he was discharged nearly a year ago. They had hoped his eyes would heal and his sight would return. It never did, but Ryabets' decision never wavered. "Nothing changed for me," she said.

On September 9, a bright and sunny day, Ryabets, clutching her bouquet of flowers while wearing a white, strapless wedding dress, escorts her groom, Soroka, to their wedding in Kyiv.

 

Ryabets speaks with Soroka during their wedding celebration, held a day after their wedding, on September 10.

Despite his blindness, Soroka and Ryabets are determined to move forward. He hopes to find work, and most of all, he wants to start a family.

The mothers of the newlyweds travel in the trunk of a car during the second day of the wedding celebration on the outskirts of Kyiv.

In line with tradition, as both families were losing their children to marriage, both parents changed into traditional Ukrainian dress.

Oleksandr Soroka, 55, is pulled in a wheelbarrow by family and guests during the wedding celebrations, where later he was ceremonially tossed into a body of water to celebrate his son leaving home.

The Soviet Army veteran later said he could have enlisted instead of his son. "I blame myself," he said, his voice shaking.

Soroka and Ryabets celebrate their nuptials with a toast with family and friends.

As their wedding celebrations continued for a second day, Soroka said, "I am seeing with my feelings, with my emotions.”