A UKRAINIAN couple married in Britain surrounded by pictures of family and friends stuck in the warzone.
Sweethearts Maria Bilyk and Vitalij Melynik had planned to wed in Lviv in June.
The wedding was postponed after Russia invaded and teacher Maria, 23, fled to join gardener Vitalij, 27, who’s lived in Feltham, West London, for ten years.
For last week’s wedding, seats had snaps of missing guests.
Maria said: “The only thing we really want is for the war to finish and a big wedding where we could invite as many people as possible.”
Vitalij and Maria got together in 2019 after meeting through friends some years earlier.
He proposed during a trip back to Ukraine last December and when war broke out she decided to join him in Britain.
She said: “My mum and my sister chose not to flee Ukraine. They simply didn’t want to leave their husbands behind.
“I felt alone in that way – I just couldn’t stay in Ukraine not knowing if I was ever going to see Vitalij again.
Alongside pictures of their missing wedding guests, they placed sunflowers on each seat, Ukraine’s national flower.
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Julia Atherley
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