NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Ukrainian couple who married the day Russia invaded their country are now part of the resistance, with the wife volunteering in Kyiv and the husband on combat missions as the war enters its third week.
Yaryna Arieva, 21, and husband Sviatoslav Fursin, 24, joined the Territorial Defense Forces immediately after getting married on Feb. 24.
Photos posted to the couple’s Instagram accounts just months ago show them leading normal lives. Their most recent posts capture them clad in military fatigues, and a selfie Fursin posted Wednesday shows him clutching a rifle.
Speaking from the Territorial Defense Force base in Kyiv on Wednesday, Arieva told “Newsline with Brigitte Quinn” on 1010 WINS: “People here, they know that we will win.”
“They are furious. They are very angry. They are also laughing at Russians, but still they are very angry, and they are ready to fight for their land. They are ready to kill for their land. And that really inspires me—like really this spirit, this vibe in here, it is wonderful and it really gives me strength,” she said.
Fursin returned from a combat mission Tuesday and was unable to speak with WINS as he did work in the capital city.
“He came back after five days of combat mission, when he didn’t have an ability to sleep normally,” Arieva said. “He was absolutely exhausted. He came back having no ability to talk normally, and of course it was really hard for him.”
Arieva said the Territorial Defense Force is like the “second line after the regular army.”
“They cover their back. They help to kill those sabotage groups who weren’t killed by regular army. They help to destroy those tanks and machines which were not destroyed by regular army,” she said.
While Fursin had some experience with arms—his father and father-in-law were soldiers—this is his first time fighting.
Arieva said Fursin’s first mission was “the hardest night of my life.”
“I just couldn’t find a place for myself,” she said. “I couldn’t find what to do, I didn’t know what to do. And I was just praying, smoking and crying the whole night, and it seemed like the whole night, it was so long. I couldn’t even describe it.”
Arieva said she has been very busy doing volunteer work at the base, where she has been for 13 days.
“Like helping with the kitchen, helping with the medicine, taking some things, some clothing and bringing it to base,” she said, adding that “everyone is working right now” in the capital city.
While a number of Ukrainian cities are besieged by Russian forces, “it is almost silent” in the center of Kyiv, she said. “We hear sirens maybe once per three hours, so it is enough time to do some work.”
“We haven’t heard explosions or shootings in the center of Kyiv. Everything is silent, like it’s the place everyone protects the most, because it is very close to the governmental streets, like the main point for the Russian aggression to take,” she said. “Still, as everyone, I’m watching the news and the cities near Kyiv, like Hostomel, Irpin, Bucha, are just—the war’s in there and people are hiding in shelters, having no network, having no electricity, no water, no food.”
Despite the hardship the Ukrainian people have faced these past two weeks and the struggle to come, Arieva said she’s confident her country will be victorious and that she and her husband will be able to enjoy married life—on Ukrainian soil—after the war: “I know that we will win, and I know that someday we will celebrate it normally. Or maybe we will just celebrate the victory of Ukraine.”
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