A young couple in Ukraine found themselves celebrating their wedding in a hospital in the city of Lviv after 23-year-old Oksana Balandina lost both of her legs in a landmine blast amid the horrors of war as Russia continues to press forward with an invasion of Ukraine.
Balandina, despite her injuries, embraced her new husband as they shared their first dance.
"I did not want to live, I did not want to live such a life," Balandina told 9 News Australia from her hospital bed in Ukraine.
She has two children and fears for their well-being, not wanting them to worry about their mother.
But a change of heart came with the support of her family. "I need to keep living," she said. "It is not the end of life. If God left me alive, that is my destiny," she said.
Balandina recovered in the Lviv hospital and was fitted with prosthetic legs, which is when a simple wedding was organized in her hospital ward. The other patients there were witnesses to the young couple's wedding.
