KYIV — Former Ukrainian beauty queen Anastasiia Lenna has signed up to defend her country against Russia.
The brunette beauty also issued a stern warning to invaders.
“Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed,” she wrote in one Instagram post.
Lenna represented Ukraine in the Miss Grand International contest in 2015 and worked as a public relations manager in Turkey after graduating from Slavistik University in Kyiv where she studied marketing and management, the New York Post reported.
She speaks five languages and has worked as a translator.
Lenna was in Dubai before returning to Ukraine prior to Russia’s invasion.
Since Russia’s military aggression towards its democratic neighbour last week, Lenna has been promoting anti-war messages on social media.
Like many in her country and around the world, she is hoping for Russian hostility to cease.
Images of the beauty queen holding a rifle has been making the rounds on social media, resulting in hundreds of thousands of new Instagram followers.
“I had a normal life just on Wednesday, like millions of people,” she said in a post.
“I am not military, just a woman, just a normal human. Just a person, like all people of my country.”
She clarified that images of her taking up arms were not meant to promote violence — Lenna is a fan of the laser tag-like team game airsoft which explains older snapshots of her with weapons.
“I don’t do any propaganda except showing our women of Ukraine — strong, confident and powerful,” she wrote.
“I appreciate all attention and support to my country, all people in Ukraine we fight every day against Russian aggression.”
Lenna is among thousands of Ukrainian civilians who are resisting the Russian invasion of Kyiv.
According to the Daily Mail, ordinary citizens have been receiving basic combat training from handling guns to making Molotov cocktails as well as tossing grenades.
The freshly-trained forces are standing guard behind piles of tires at checkpoints in the capital Kyiv and patrolling the city’s deserted streets.
The volunteers, who are defending their country come from all walks of life, including teachers, newlyweds, returning expats and boxing superstars Vasiliy Lomachenko, and brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko.
Russia launched an unprovoked large-scale assault on Ukraine on Thursday.
The invasion has been declared the largest conventional warfare operation in Europe since World War II.
The use indiscriminate bombing techniques has seen Putin accused of war crimes, after multiple reports of the use of cluster and vacuum bombs on residential high-rises and non-military structures.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan confirmed yesterday that a probe will be launched into Russia’s bombing campaign: “I wish to announce that I have decided to proceed with opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine, as rapidly as possible.”
“I am satisfied that there is a reasonable basis to believe that both alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed in Ukraine,” he added.