Beach flip flops instead of combat boots and nail polish on the trigger finger: A young woman dressed in a Paris-Hilton-summer look is in the Eastern Ukraine traveling with a pro-Russian militia. Why?
The hair band that holds her bleached hair is color-coordinated with the pink flip-flops.
The young woman is wearing blue jeans, a white tank top, and pilot sunglasses, as you often see during the summer in chic beach clubs in major German cities.
You also see this in the Eastern Ukraine’s summer, but this year there is war.
The young woman of whom we do not even know her name, has apparently joined a pro-Russian militia. The sight is disturbing, with the Kalashnikov’s strap hung over tanned skin it acts like a cross between Lara Croft and Paris Hilton.
She was photographed with insurgents in full riot gear in the contested city of Petrovsky, 25 kilometers west of Donetsk – One of the millions of cities, after which the separatists have named their internationally unrecognized “People’s Republic”.
True combat readiness or propaganda?
The photo series raises many questions: Why did the woman have no dirt on her white shirt, not a scratch on her skin? Why is she running with bare feet in flip-flops over rubble and broken glass? Why are her perfectly manicured hands on the weapon? Who is the young woman and what is she doing here? Why is her expression between shock and determination, with a dash of melancholy? Did she perhaps lose family members in the war and wants to fight?
We do not even know if she’s even still alive.
> Photos of the French news agency AFP show the young woman on July 15, amid the rubble in front of a kindergarten which was being inspected after damage from Ukrainian government troops. The children’s hopscotch game seen in the picture is splintered with window glass.
The blonde woman is walking with pink flip-flops on the glass with pressed gun to her chest. Is she a mother whose child attended the facility? Are these pictures propaganda motives staged by the rebels of the region in order to bluff western reporters?
Another photo of the series shows the woman in the passenger seat of a pro-Russian fighter who is smoking and nervously handling his rifle.
In front of the blonde woman lies a sunflower. Who picked it on this summer day?
In Russian and Ukrainian folk medicine, the oil of a sunflower is used for curing ailments and is a detoxifying organism.
No one has eyes in the Eastern Ukraine as long as the poison of war propaganda works. As long as the cycle of violence continues to rotate, the number of refugees and civilian casualties will continue to rise.
This article has been translated into English and was originally published by Albert Link. For the original article click here.