They spent their first day of marriage getting rifles to defend Ukraine

(CNN) — Yaryna Arieva and Sviatoslav Fursin were married just hours after Russia launched the invasion of their country. They spent their first day as a married couple collecting rifles and preparing to defend Ukraine.

The wedding was supposed to be in May, but the couple is no longer sure what the future holds.

Arieva and Fursin enlisted in the Territorial Defense Forces, a mostly volunteer branch of the Ukrainian armed forces. Once they were armed, the couple went to the office of their political party, European Solidarity.

“Right now, we are here and we are doing everything we can. So there is a lot of work to do, but still, I hope everything goes well,” Arieva said, adding that some civilians who are not part of the defense forces also they received rifles.

“There are some places where you can get them, and you just sign the papers and you can go out and protect your country,” he said. “That’s the situation right now.”

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