An ex-beauty queen who married a soldier in the trenches after trading in her high heels for a bulletproof vest to battle on the front lines in Ukraine.
In March, the Queen of Ukraine for the year 2012, Evgenia Prokopenko, joined the fight against Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” and declared she had a bullet for the Russian leader.
The 35-year-old nevertheless got married last week on the frontlines despite missiles flying and the looming threat of death.
“My Paradise is in Hell! My love and my World!” she wrote on Instagram, sharing the news alongside a string of photos from her wedding, at which she wore a white veil with her army uniform.
Evgenia, who also runs her own law firm, told the Daily Star in September that she was joining the army as a medic.
“I speak Russian fluently, but I don’t know Putin’s language.
“I don’t know in what language it’s still possible to speak him, because he refuses to understand all the languages of all world’s developed countries,” Evgenia said.
And, adding a stark warning, she continued: “I have no words for him, because with Putin we need to act, not talk.
“I have only a bullet for him.”
Evgenia, who is also handy with a rifle, said she has seen friends and comrades die, but still managed to cling to some semblance of her life as a beauty queen whilst in “hell”.
The Kyiv-born Miss Earth 2012 finalist said: “My military backpack always has a beauty bag with a mirror and perfumes, no matter where I am in the dugout trenches.”
After the region had been held by Russia for six months, she and her fellow soldiers liberated the town of Izyum and surrounding villages.
She said: “These are two very different, opposite lives. In civilian life, I was engaged in completely different things.
“I had my own business, there my ‘uniform’ was a business dress with heels, on the war a rough military dress and berets.
“Here, at the front, I am a paramedic. I evacuate from red zones (fighting zones) wounded. We provide first aid.”
Evgenia, who also saves animals from danger zones, added: “I would never have believed, If someone had told me six months ago that I would be in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, sleeping in dugout trenches or basements, rescuing the wounded under fire.”
