Defiant Ukrainian TV star poses for Playboy in an armored bikini after being shot and losing an eye in the war

• A Ukrainian TV presenter lost an eye in a suspected assassination attempt last year.
• She mounted a comeback, appearing on the cover of Playboy in an armored bikini and eye patch.

A Ukrainian TV presenter and model has appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine after surviving a shooting last year.

Iryna Bilotserkovets, whose husband is an aide to Kyiv's mayor, lost an eye and had to undergo several rounds of reconstructive surgery after she was injured in a suspected assassination attempt in Kyiv three days after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, The Telegraph reported.

Clad in an armored bikini and eye patch, Bilotserkovets appeared on the cover of the first edition of Playboy Ukraine to print since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Bilotserkovets told The Telegraph that she doesn't know if she was the intended target. The outlet said the attack took place three days into the invasion when Kyiv was under severe threat.

Russia initially hoped to take out the capital quickly and deployed sabotage groups and assassins in the capital with a mission to take out key targets, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Fighting reached the outskirts of the city before the Ukrainian military repelled the Russian forces.

Bilotserkovets described her wounds to Playboy. "An eye missing, tubes sticking out everywhere, hair shaved off from surgery. Stitches, scars, wounds everywhere; I was just Frankenstein's monster. My jaw had shattered like a twig," she said.

"I no longer have a pretty face, but the rest of my body is beautiful," she said.

Bilotserkovets said she was driving her three children home in Kyiv when their car came under fire.

She would have died from blood loss if a paramedic hadn't treated her quickly, The Telegraph said. She underwent months of treatment and has since become a symbol of both Ukrainian resistance at large and the resilience of Ukrainian injured women during the war.

Bilotserkovets said she lost an eye, had her jaw broken, and was left with scars all over her body.

"It was not a question of preserving my beauty; it was a question of whether I would live or not. Doctors in Ukraine said I was probably going to die. I didn't agree, and neither did my husband," she told Playboy.

Playboy Ukraine said in a statement that Bilotserkovets was featured as part of its "Women Stay Strong" edition.

The statement said the issue is "dedicated to the resilience of Ukrainian women who have been injured during the war, but who have not lost their thirst for life and are an example of strength and motivation," The Telegraph reported.

Proceeds from the magazine will be donated to purchase emergency medical equipment for the Ukrainian army, its publisher said.