A Ukrainian soldier who was shot in the head by Russian troops but survived and went on to model for Playboy magazine has revealed her message to President Putin.
Iryna Bilotserkovets lost an eye and had to undergo reconstructive surgery as she survived Russia’s assault on Kyiv..
She has since become a symbol of Ukrainian defiance, appearing on the front cover of the country’s Playboy magazine wearing an eyepatch and metal bikini.
Iryna who now models but with either sunglasses, a patch or hair covering her left eye says doctors were convinced she would die as they removed bullet shards from her skull.
Iryna even saif “goodbye” to her children as she accepted her fate.
Some two years after Putin’s invasion on February 24, 2022, she remains in besieged Kyiv and now has a message for Putin.
“Now there is a war. Children, women, and old people are dying.” She told The Sun.
“Our men defend our country.
“Leaders of other countries shake hands with Putin, forgetting that this is a killer who has been waging a cold-blooded war for eight years.
“Today he has crossed all acceptable boundaries”
She said the Russian bombing is getting worse, as her family go days without electricity, and she and her children have run for underground bunkers nearly daily.
“People are going crazy. They’re going off the rails,”
“There was already a bit of a tense mood. Panic in the air,” she said while reminiscing of her first attempt to leave Ukraine when the war started.
“On the 26th, the situation was getting so tense that the decision to leave was made.
“Now I realise it wasn’t right.”
Iryna didn’t realise the danger she was driving into as she tried to flee Kyiv.
“I didn’t notice anyone beforehand – but then I heard a shot from behind my car and assumed it was somewhere in the distance,” she recalled.
In a split second, a bullet hit her in the head.
Bullets pierced through the rear and left side window of the vehicle, ricocheting and also punching through the windscreen.
She managed to stop the car as she dealt with the pain – and even said “goodbye” to her children before she lost consciousness.
Iryna told The Sun: “The head doctor came to me and said everything that had happened to me, that my children were alive, that they were fine, that I had lost an eye, that I had a big, massive head injury, that part of my face was destroyed.”
In March 2022, the mum of three underwent surgery for ten straight hours.
She said: “Thanks to the German professor, I look like I only lost an eye.
“But it’s not just an eye. It’s half of my face. It’s mute. The nerves haven’t sprouted.
“I’m not chewing on the left side. It’s impossible to do that.”
