THE NUMBER of weddings in the besieged city of Kharkiv is soaring as troops wed their sweethearts before heading to the frontline.
In the last year alone, the number of couples tying the knot in the region rose by 11 per cent to 10,977.
Ukraine's brave warriors are marrying in order to get their affairs in order amid fears they may not make it back from the meatgrinder.
The Sun witnessed a number of couples getting hitched at Kharkiv's wedding palace.
They included Maxim, 27, a soldier in Ukraine's National Guard, and his bride Yulia, 25.
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Maxim told how he arrived back in Kharkiv on Thursday after spending two months with British troops in the UK.
It's just like it was in the Second World War. British guys were marrying before going to fight - we're no different."
Maxim
He and Yulia married on Friday but hours later he rejoined his unit on the frontline in Kharkiv.
Before he redeployed he told The Sun: "Everybody is getting married.
"My brother got married six months ago, my best friend too.
"So many of us have married in this period.
"The reason why - most of us understand that we may not get the chance to do it after we reach the frontline.
"We may not come back."
He added: "It's just like it was in the Second World War. British guys were marrying before going to fight - we're no different."
He and Yulia, who have been together for eight years, posed for photographs on the steps of the wedding palace.
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Maxim laughed: "How did we meet? I was drunk! But it was romantic.
"We went out to the river - it was love at first sight. We both knew.
"We were planning to get married before the war but it wasn't possible.
"This may be our only chance - we couldn't wait any longer. My honeymoon will begin with my unit on the front."
Yulia said: "It's scary to know what will happen.
"I feel happy because I have my husband near me but he will go tomorrow.
"It's difficult to see him go, so difficult. I want our women to be strong because without us, our husbands, our men, our military, need us.
"They need our support."
Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv is now seeing intense fighting as Putin's troops look to push forward into the northeast.
Kharkiv's mayor Ihor Terekhov has begged the West to step in and accused Vlad of terrorising its 1.3 million residents and plunging the city into darkness.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv - liberated after six months of Moscow's occupation in September 2022 - have been scaling up dramatically in previous weeks, killing dozens and leaving thousands without electricity.
Terekhov said that unless the West steps up and delivers crucial air defence systems - Kharkiv could suffer the same fate as the Syrian city of Aleppo, which heavy Russian bombing helped to decimate a decade ago.
On Saturday at least 18 people were killed after a Russian missile strike hit a retail park in the region sparking a horror inferno.
Dramatic footage shows massive plumes of black smoke rising into the Kharkiv sky after the Epicentre construction hypermarket became engulfed by flames.
Witnesses told our Sun reporter on the scene there were 200 people inside the 10,000sqft construction hypermarket.
Hero Brit volunteer Tony Ferret, 34, of Rye, Kent, was among those trying to help as the sky filled with black smoke.
He told The Sun: “They were trying to move vehicles out of the way so they could get the fire engines in.
“I pushed them out of the way with my vehicle.
“No one came out of that building. No one survived.
“It’s a disgusting day. Very emotional, to be honest."
