Bohdan and Iryna Manko decided not to cancel their wedding ceremony in the western city of Lviv despite their country being invaded by Russia, defiant that there was a better future ahead for Ukraine.

In her white wedding dress with a bouquet of flowers, bride Iryna was a little nervous but felt comfortable being surrounded by family and friends at their traditional Christian wedding ceremony.

The groom, Bohdan said he was optimistic even though it is such a difficult time.

''Difficult times, but we are optimistic. We are fighting strong and we will win. We will help with everything we can to fight this invasion and Ukraine will win. And we didn't cancel our wedding because we hope for a better future for us, to rebuild our country and to live in a happy country with everyone. So we feel very hopeful now,'' he said.

The couple had hoped to travel abroad to Rome or another city for their honeymoon, but those plans had to be postponed because of the war.

Instead, they said they plan to stay in Lviv where they intend to help other Ukrainians as much as they can.

"Hopefully in the next months we will organize something beautiful for us," he said.

The number of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion was expected to reach 1.5 million on Sunday as Ukraine pressed the West to toughen sanctions and deliver more weapons to repel Moscow's attack now on its 11th day.

People who have been able to escape Ukraine spilled into neighboring Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on those in areas occupied by Russian troops to fight.

Ukraine and Western countries have decried Putin's reasons as a baseless pretext for the invasion and have imposed sweeping sanctions aimed at isolating Moscow and crippling its economy.