Rebel beauty pageant: Female Ukrainian rebels trade in combat boots for high heels
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trading in their combat boots and fatigues for high heels and ball gowns, female rebel fighters who normally fight Ukrainian soldiers have taken the day off to take part in a beauty pageant.
The event was organized by self-proclaimed authorities in the rebel-held city of Donetsk on Saturday.
Women from three main rebel battalions showed off their dinner dresses before they changed back to fatigues to receive prizes and roses.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Most of the women were local residents who followed their husbands or boyfriends to the front. One of the contestants was a woman from the Russian city of Bryansk.
The pageant was held on the eve of International Women's Day, a widely celebrated throughout the former Soviet Union.