Click Here for ‘I Do’

Since September, Ukrainian citizens have been able to get married in a most unusual way: via Diia, the country’s statewide app, which has more than 20 million users. The system is simple, if unromantic: One partner proposes through the app, and the other is sent a notification. If the second party says yes within 14 days, the two agree on a date for a video call wedding, complete with officiant, on the Webex platform. It might sound like an austere way to profess one’s love, but it was designed to help the many Ukrainian couples who are physically separated by Russia’s invasion of the country carry on with their lives. More than 1.1 million Ukrainians proposed using the tech in the first month it was available, and 435 couples married in that timeframe.