Invasion Of Ukraine Puts Couple's Bay Area Wedding On Hold – 'Stressful And Scary'
LIVERMORE (KPIX 5) – A Bay Area couple's wedding plans are on hold, as the bride-to-be is currently living in Ukraine amid the invasion by Russia.
Colton Harris told KPIX 5 his fiancée Margarita lives in southern part of the country. Their four-year, long distance romance has survived a pandemic, but now the couple now faces an even bigger obstacle.
"It's kind of stressful and scary," Harris told KPIX 5 on Friday, more than a week after Russia invaded.
The couple met in 2017 when he traveled to Ukraine with his family. They were planning to get married this year in the United States and start a life together.
"I was supposed to have landed in Kiev last Monday to go see her," he recalled.
But those plans quickly changed.
"Four or five days before I was supposed to leave, air space gets shut down and the invasion happened," he said.
Colton said they try to text and call each other every day. Margarita is living with her mother in Zaporozhye.
"They are probably having a couple of air raid sirens a day that go off for about 10 minutes, no actual attacks or anything. The bridges over the river in their city have been shut down to most traffic," he said.
Like so many Ukrainians, Margarita is choosing to stay.
"She is kind of having a bit of guilt in her mind because she doesn't want to leave her country and leave her people behind when all of these people are staying to fight and defend," Harris said. "It's been incredible, amazing and inspiring what their people are doing and how much love they have for their country."
He went on to say, "I am ready to fly out tomorrow if I have to. Whatever I need to do to get her somewhere where she can feel safe and have people around her who are helping her."