Ukrainian nurse who lost both 脚s dances with new husband, 公約するs to keep living
By Margaryta Chornokondratenko
LVIV, ウクライナ共和国, May 3 (Reuters) - Newlyweds Oksana Balandina and Viktor Vasyliv 株d their first wedding dance in a hospital 区 in Lviv, in western ウクライナ共和国.
The groom 解除するd his wife up in his 武器 and turned her around between the hospital beds, as she put one arm around his neck and held a 包帯d 手渡す to his chest.
It is a moment the 23-year-olds thought they would never 株, after Balandina lost both her 脚s weeks earlier when a landmine 爆発するd on March 27, a little over a month after Russia 侵略するd, as the couple walked home in Lysychansk in ウクライナ共和国's eastern Luhansk 地域.
"I only managed to shout to him: 'Honey, look!'", said Balandina, as she 解任するd the moment it happened.
"He looked at me when the 地雷 爆発するd. I fell 負かす／撃墜する with my 直面する on the ground. There was an extreme noise in my 長，率いる. Then I turned around and I started to 涙／ほころび off the 着せる／賦与するing on me. I thought it would be easier to breathe because there was not enough 空気／公表する," Balandina 解任するd.
Vasyliv, who was walking behind her, was 損なわれない.
"When it happened, I gave up in despair, I did not know what to do. I saw her not moving," he said.
"If it was not for Oksana, I don't know what would have happened. She is so strong. She did not faint. It was Oksana who 連係させた our 活動／戦闘s," he 追加するd.
Balandina has spent the last month 存在 扱う／治療するd in さまざまな hospitals around the country. In the end, doctors had to amputate both of her 脚s and four fingers of her left 手渡す.
She said she spent many of those days in a dark place.
"I did not want to live... I didn't want to live such life, I have two children. I didn't want them to see me like this. I did not want to be a 重荷（を負わせる） for anyone in my family," said Balandina, speaking in hospital.
"But thanks to the support, I 受託するd it. I need to keep living. It is not the end of the life. If God left me alive, that's my 運命."
Her two children - a 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter - are now 安全な with their grandparents in the Poltava 地域 in central ウクライナ共和国.
After celebrating their wedding in hospital, the couple are hoping to travel to Germany where Balandina will get prosthetic 脚s and を受ける rehabilitation.
The road ahead is long and with no sight of peace in ウクライナ共和国, Balandina says she can only 焦点（を合わせる） on the here and now, and on her 回復.
"I want to go 支援する to our town, to Lysychansk, but 率直に speaking, I am worried for my children. When the war is over, there will be so many things happening. The road was 地雷d... It is scary," she said.
Russia 否定するs its 軍隊／機動隊s kill or 的 非軍事のs in what Moscow calls a "special 操作／手術" to 武装解除する the country and 保護する it from 国粋主義者／ファシスト党員s.
Vasyliv said he's 感謝する for each day that he 株 with his new wife.
"I was afraid to lose her. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to cry, but I could not cry. I was shocked, I could not comprehend that it was happening indeed. It was terrifying to lose the person I love," he said.
(報告（する）／憶測ing by Margaryta Chornokondratenko, Editing by Alexandra Hudson and Aurora Ellis)
