Miss Ukraine Just Admitted That Her Gun-Toting Instagram Pic Is Not What It Looks Like
Turns out she didn't exactly join the military...
A former Miss Ukraine is definitely supporting her country's fight against Russian invaders, but that doesn't mean she's taking up arms on the front lines.
Anastasiia Lenna seems to have confused a lot of people and media outlets with her patriotic Instagram posts, after some reported that she was actually joining the military fight against Russia.
One of the posts showed her in tactical gear with a rifle in her hands, while others reportedly promised death to the invaders.
"Everyone who crosses the Ukrainian border with the intent to invade will be killed!" she reportedly wrote in a now-deleted post.
The posts had sites like The Independent and Sky News reporting that Lenna had "joined the fight," although it seems now that she's part of the public relations war, more so than the actual one.
The 2015 beauty pageant contestant has since revealed that her posts were taken the wrong way, and she's not actually joining the fight in person. She's just trying to support those that are fighting for her and others.
" I AM NOT A MILITARY, JUST A HUMAN," she wrote in an awkwardly translated Instagram post on Monday.
"Due [to the] current situation I want to talk! I am not a military, just a woman, just normal human. Just a person, like all people of my country."
Then she revealed what was up with her military photo.
"I am also an airsoft player for years," she wrote. "You can Google what #airsoft means. All pictures in my profile to inspire people."
Google "Airsoft guns" and you'll see that they look like real firearms, but they only shoot non-lethal pellets.
Apparently, Lenna's guns were just Airsoft weapons.
While Lenna has taken to her social media to show her support with hashtags such as #prayforukraine and #stopwar, she seems not to be actually fighting the battle herself.
She also appears to have deleted some of the posts that inspired the misinformation about her in the first place, although there are still plenty of her Airsoft pics on her account.
Lenna was a contestant in the 2015 Miss Grand International beauty pageant before her Airsoft days.
The New York Post reported that Lenna grew her Instagram account by more than 200,000 followers over the weekend after her posts went viral, with people interpreting and reporting that she had joined the Ukrainian army on the battlefield.
The government of Ukraine has been distributing firearms to those who want to join in the defense of the country, after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade last Thursday.