A professional Ukrainian dancer trades her ballet shoes for an Ak-47 rifle and to defend her country against the Russians.
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30-year-old Olesia Vorotnyk has been dancing professionally since 2009, according to British magazine The Economist.
She joined the national dance troupe, the equivalent of Canada’s big broomsticks, but in Ukraine.
Her husband was killed three years ago in the conflict that followed the Russian conquest of Crimea in 2014.
She vowed that in the event of war she would take up arms to defend her country.
After initially being rejected, she joined the Homeland Defense Forces.
“As a ballerina, I wasn’t at the top of the list,” she says.