Ukrainian model posed for the cover of Playboy magazine after being suspected of assassination.

Irina Belotserkovets, who has scars all over her body from bullet wounds, became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance

In the first issue of Playboy, which will be printed in Ukraine after the start of the Russian invasion, the cover star features an assassination attempt wearing an eyepatch and a metal bikini.

Irina Belotserkovets, a model and TV presenter, had to undergo several reconstructive surgeries after hit by bullets in Kiev shortly after Russia launched its offensive. Pro-Russian forces have been blamed for the attack.

Ms Belotserkovets does not know if she was the intended target of the shooting as the wife of a politician aide to Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, or if she was simply caught in the crossfire of the chaotic early days of the war. .

But she has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. On the cover of Playboy, she wears a short metal bikini and a heart-shaped patch over her missing left eye.

«Stitches, scars, wounds everywhere»

Ms. Bilotserkovets was patched up in a hospital in Berlin, and she recalled in a magazine , as I first saw my reflection in the mirror after the operation.

“The eye is missing, the tubes stick out everywhere, the hair is shaved off the operation. Stitches, scars, wounds everywhere; I was just a Frankenstein monster. My jaw broke like a branch,” she said.

“I don’t have a beautiful face anymore, but the rest of my body is beautiful,” said the model, who now works with the Ukrainian Cultural Forces, an association of artists and musicians who organize morale-boosting events for soldiers on the front lines. .

On February 26, 2022, on the third day of the invasion, Ms. Belotserkovets was driving her three children to their family home in an affluent area of ​​Kiev when her car was fired upon.

< p>“I only remember a severe headache and the fact that I managed to stop,” Ms Belotserkovets told the Spanish news website El Confidencial about the attack, in which she lost an eye and broke her jaw.

She also scars all over his body from bullet wounds and four subsequent operations.

The front line at the time was several miles from the Ukrainian capital, but pro-Russian forces, including Wagner Group operatives and Chechen special forces, were operating in Kiev, and the president Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly survived three assassination attempts in the first weeks of the war.

“They said I would die. I disagree '

Ms Belotserkovets was rescued by a paramedic who prevented her from bleeding to death, and then she began months of emergency treatment followed by reconstructive surgeries.

“It was not about saving my beauty; the question was whether I would live or not. Doctors in Ukraine said that I would probably die. I disagreed, and neither did my husband,” she said.

Playboy Ukraine said in a statement that Ms. Belotserkovets was one of the characters in its issue of Women Remain Strong, which is “dedicated to the resilience of Ukrainian women who were wounded during the war but have not lost their lust for life and are an example of strength and motivation.”

The publisher says the proceeds from the magazine will be donated to emergency medical equipment for the Ukrainian army.