He couldn’t see his wedding. But this war-blinded Ukrainian soldier cried with joy at new love

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Blinded by a Russian mortar shell, Ukrainian veteran Ivan Soroka couldn’t see his bride when she walked into his family home in a shoulderless white dress, a bouquet of white flowers in her right hand.

But when Vladislava Ryabets, 25, stepped toward him, Soroka wept with joy at the new chapter of life starting months after enemy artillery stole his sight.

“The first thing I said after I was wounded was, who will want me now?” said Soroka, 27, sitting inside his family home in a village in the outskirts of Kyiv.

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