Village celebrates wedding of blinded Ukrainian soldier

Vladislava Ryabets, left, helps groom Ivan Soroka, right, to walk during their wedding day in Kyiv, Ukraine (AP)

After being blinded by a Russian mortar shell, Ukrainian veteran Ivan Soroka could not see his bride when she walked into his family home in a shoulderless white dress, with a bouquet of white flowers in her hand.

But when Vladislava Ryabets, 25, stepped toward him, Mr Soroka wept with joy at the new chapter of life starting months after enemy artillery stole his sight.