Ukrainian women bare their war injuries in Playboy

Telegraph

08-05-2025

Ukrainian women injured in the war with Russia have bared their battle scars in the latest issue of Playboy.
Five women – including a veteran who lost a limb in combat – were photographed for the Scarred Beauty project, which tells the stories of women who have survived severe injuries and their rehabilitation.
The creators said they wanted to highlight 'female strength' and show that beauty did not 'vanish after injury'.
They added that it was important to 'challenge outdated stereotypes' traditionally associated with Playboy.
Ksenia Sikorska, of the First Ukrainian International Bank, which collaborated on the venture, said: 'We not only want to support all seriously injured people, but also to show, through the example of our injured women, that they need not only physical recovery, but also mental strength and psychological adaptation to a new body, support and understanding from society.'
The Ukrainian Playboy's May issue features servicewomen Anastasiia Savka, Yana Zalevska and Kristina Sanina, alongside wounded civilians Nadiia Oksiuta and Olha Diatliuk.
Playboy wrote: 'They look into the lens and the mirror to say: 'I am here. I am beautiful and worthy of love.' This beauty is not for comparison. It is to inspire.'
Anastasiia Savka, who graced the cover of the magazine in a red dress with her prosthetic limb on show, lost her leg fighting in Zaporizhzhia in 2023 after stepping onto a landmine.
Ms Savka, who worked at a car service station before the war, was serving as a sniper with the 118th Brigade following Russia's full scale invasion.
Yana Zalevska, another veteran, who served as a military journalist and combat medic before retraining as a drone operator, showed the scars marking her face and arms.
Seriously injured by shrapnel in a Russian drone strike in 2024, Ms Zalevska, of the 59th Separate Motorised Infantry Brigade, plans to return to service after finishing her rehabilitation programme.
Kristina Sanina, a captain in the armed forces of Ukraine, lifted her dress to show her two prosthetic legs in the photographs.
Ms Sanina was the first woman in Ukraine to receive a prosthetic using the osseointegration method, in which a titanium implant is surgically inserted directly into the bone.
She currently supports other wounded soldiers while undergoing treatment at the Tytanovi centre, a rehabilitation facility for veterans in Kyiv.
Civilian Olha Diatliuk, who bore the burns on her arm in the feature, survived a missile strike on the city of Vinnytsia in July 2022.
Ms Diatliuk recounted her escape from a burning building and the rehabilitation she completed with the Unburned charity project, which provides medical care to individuals who have suffered skin damage due to the war.
Nadiia Oksiuta and her daughter suffered severe burns to their face and limbs after being in the vicinity of a helicopter crash that killed three main figures in Ukraine's interior ministry in January 2023.
Ms Oksiuta underwent a series of treatments, first in Kyiv and Lviv, and later in Austria.
She wrote: 'We are alive – that's what matters. Those were the first words I said to my daughter Alisa two years ago after we escaped the fire.
'This tragedy didn't break me. I accepted myself, my appearance and condition. I show Alisa by my example that everything will be alright.'