Ukrainian nurse and doctor celebrate wedding in war-torn Kharkiv

Ukrainian volunteer nurse and doctor celebrate their wedding by posing for photo on top of smashed-up car as they tie the knot in war-shattered Kharkiv

• Newlyweds Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov pictured surrounded by rubble
• Couple are volunteer medics who deliver vital treatment to Kharkiv’s residents
• They are the latest couple not to let the Russian invasion prevent them marrying 

A Ukrainian couple have celebrated their wedding by posing for photos surrounded by rubble in war-shattered Kharkiv.

Newlyweds Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov were pictured shortly after they tied the knot on Sunday amongst the rubble of a shopping and office complex in Ukraine’s second biggest city.

The couple were medics before the outbreak of the war but have since become volunteers, providing free medical care to those in need.

A Ukrainian couple celebrated their wedding surrounded by rubble in war-shattered Kharkiv

Nastya Gracheva and Anton Sokolov were pictured shortly after they tied the knot on Sunday

Nastya worked as a nurse in an oncology clinic while Anton Sokolov worked as a doctor before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It is reported that when they ran out of medical supplies, they began to collect money and purchase medicines for the city’s residents who were in need of treatment.  

It comes as the regional governor in Kharkiv said today that Russian artillery and tanks launched over 20 strikes on the city and its outskirts in the country’s northeast over the past 24 hours.

In a town southeast of the city, Oleh Synyehubov said Russian troops fired on a convoy of buses that was trying to evacuate patients from a hospital that had been heavily damaged in shelling a day earlier.

The couple were medical volunteers, a nurse and a doctor before the Russian invasion

Synyehubov said about 70 patients needed to be taken away from the damaged hospital in Balakliya, but that the buses were not able to enter the town.

Kharkiv has yet to experience the withdrawal of Russian forces, as has happened around the capital, Kyiv.

But that failed to prevent Nastya and Anton celebrating their nuptials, just the latest couple to tie the knot despite the onslaught from Russian forces.

Ukrainian couples who were due to tie the knot before the invasion have been sharing how they’ve refused to let the conflict change their plans since it started five weeks ago.

National Guard of Ukraine members Oleksandr and Olena, kiss at their wedding last month

A woman named Yaroslava Fedorash is seen kissing her uniformed new husband after she decided to bring forward her wedding, saying: ‘During the war, you only have today’

Several proposals have also taken place, including one soldier who staged a military search so he could surprise his girlfriend as she was driven through a checkpoint in the city of Fastiv, near Kyiv. 

For some, there is an urgency to cement relationships.

Last month, Ukraine’s head of the Center for Civil Liberties, Oleksandra Matviichuk, shared a touching photo on Twitter of a woman named Yaroslava Fedorash kissing her uniformed new husband. 

Explaining the wedding had been brought forward, the post read: ‘We applied on April 29, I always wanted to get married on this day. 

‘But on February 24, Putin went completely insane. The groom joined the territorial defence, I became a volunteer. It didn’t make sense to wait any longer.’

She finished the message with the poignant words: ‘During the war you have only today.’ 

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