Emerald Evgeniya, the businesswoman known as Ukrainian Joan of ArcHe will marry an army colleague he met in the middle of the conflict with Russia. She became a symbol of resistance when she gave up a life of luxury to become a sniper to defend the country.
“I knew I slept in a barracks and learned to dig trenches for a reason. […] We should be happy because that’s what the Russians tried to take away from us,” the Ukrainian wrote when posting the video of the marriage proposal on Instagram.
The owner of a successful jewelry store has donated to many Ukrainians who have lost everything since the Russian invasion in February. The filmworthy story has been brought to light by Emerald, who was recently part of a series of special reports in women’s magazine Elle.
At the beginning of the conflict, the businesswoman was the only sniper among a hundred male soldiers fighting at her side. She is trained to hit very distant targets with precision, putting teammates at risk and making it easier to surprise enemy troops.
Among the many risks she faced on the battlefields, the Ukrainian had no idea that she would find great love: “War is not about death, war is about the end of life. And I accepted. But fate decreed otherwise,” he said in a new publication.
“Everything is a little different in the military. Everything is accelerated because we understand that each day can be our last. We can’t postpone life until later,” he added.
In conversation with R7, in March of this year, In the first month of the war, Emerald shared why she dropped everything to face the Russians at the front: “I’m in the army because I want my daughter to live in a free country. I won’t leave here until we’re here win this war. I want peace and freedom for my family and for all Ukrainians.”