Their Countries Are at War. These Couples Are Still Together.

They met at work, or online, or on summer trips as teens. They are couples like so many others except for the war that has upended their lives and the role their different passports play in it.

Since Russian troops flooded into Ukraine in February 2022, fighting has pulled families apart. And for Ukrainians married to Russians, it has presented wrenching problems of residency, separation and social stigma.

Ukrainian-Russian couples have long been common, a reflection of the deeply intertwined history the two countries share. Many Ukrainians have relatives in Russia, and vice versa, and travel between the two countries was common before the war.

Polina and Kyrylo

Polina and Kyrylo Chernenko are one such mixed couple. They met working in the sales department of a medical equipment company in Kharkiv, in northeastern Ukraine.

“I remember not only the date we met but also the fact that she wore a blue dress,” said Kyrylo, 34, born in Ukraine.

“But we were friends at the beginning,” said Polina, 39, raised in Russia. “We started dating three years later, in 2013.”