Mainstream media has been attempting to convince the Western world that thousands of volunteers have joined the defense of Ukraine, including a former Miss Ukraine beauty queen. There’s just one problem. The mainstream media was spreading false propaganda on behalf of Ukraine.
The photo purported to show former Miss Grand Ukraine Anastasiia Lenna joining the military to defend her country. However, despite the image of Ms. Lenna holding a “rifle” going viral, it is simply another example of mainstream media fake news designed to manipulate the gullible masses.
“Anastasia (sic) Lenna became Miss Ukraine in 2015,” reads the caption of a Feb. 27 Facebook image that generated more than 8,300 reactions in less than a week. “Today she is fighting for her country with 36,000 women.”
Except she isn’t.
Per USA Today:
The photos of Lenna circulating online are authentic, but in a Feb. 28 Instagram post, she wrote that they show her holding an airsoft gun, denying rumors that she joined the military. She said her Ukraine-related social media posts were meant to “inspire people.”
“I am not a military, just a woman, just normal human,” Lenna wrote. “Just a person, like all people of my country. I am also an airsoft player for years. You can Google what #airsoft means.”
Lenna’s Instagram page shows she has been sharing photos of herself playing in airsoft games since as early as September 2020 accompanied by the hashtags #airsoftgirl and #airsoftqueen. A photo of her wearing a camo print jacket, which was used by some users to make the claim, was captured in October 2021 at Strikeball Corsairs Club in Kyiv.
However, some of her more recent photos, shared in February amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and Russia, included no mention about airsoft guns, leading some people to assume that she joined the military.
On Feb. 22, Lenna shared photos of herself holding an airsoft gun with the hashtags #standwithukraine and #handsoffukraine. She uploaded another image on Feb. 2 of her in the snow aiming a gun and wrote, “winter wars continue,” according to a Google translation.