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Former Miss Ukraine Veronika Didusenko recalled her unpleasant journey to escape war-torn Ukraine with her son.
On March 8, the 26-year-old, along with attorney Gloria Allred, appealed to the United States, on behalf of the Ukrainians, to "close the sky" and stop Russian President Vladimir Putin from continuing the war.
Didusenko and her seven-year-old son were among those who tried to flee Kyiv, which has been one of the most affected war areas in Ukraine.
The former beauty queen said driving to Ukraine's western border was excruciatingly slow due to traffic jams caused by thousands of cars as the country came under attack due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Who is Veronika Didusenko and what happened at the press conference?
Born on July 12, 1995, Veronika Didusenko is a native of Kyiv, Ukraine. As per reports, she began taking formal ballroom dancing lessons very young.
She has walked several runways for Maison Margiela and Escada as a fashion model. Veronika Didusenko is also a known face at red carpet events, including Paris Fashion Week.
While speaking at a press conference held in Los Angeles on the occasion of International Women's Day, Didusenko described how she and her son Alex escaped Ukraine after the Russia-Ukraine conflict began on February 24.
She revealed that explosions and sirens awakened her in Kyiv without any prior information on the formal declaration of war. Its inhabitants were left without any shelter to save themselves.
"On my lengthy journey to the border of Ukraine, there was no place where sirens could not sound, where rockets and bombs would not explode."
After reaching safety, Diadusenko met friends who offered to watch her son while advocating for her home country in the United States.
"Right now, millions of Ukrainian children and their mothers are traveling... [to] the subway stations and bomb shelters. Even more heartbreaking, women are giving birth in such conditions in these shelters. Right now, Russian [airplanes], missiles and multiple rocket launchers continue to strike at dozens of Ukrainian cities."
In Ukraine, Didusenko described seeing an air battle over her head. From Ukraine, she traveled through three countries to Switzerland, where she applied for a U.S. visa for her 7-year-old son.
She claimed that her son's visa application had been rejected, so she had to leave him in Geneva. However, her parents had decided to stay in Ukraine to protect their motherland.
Allred and Didusenko urged American President Joe Biden to allow Ukrainians to enter the U.S. without a visa if they choose to do so.
Regarding the issue, attorney Allred said that just like Europe, the United States should also do what it can, and step up.
Didusenko has repeatedly spoken out on behalf of women in the past. Just days after she became Miss Ukraine 2018, she was stripped of her title because she was a divorced mother, violating the entry requirements.
Since then, Veronika Didusenko has founded the nonprofit organization Right to Be a Mother to change the rules for the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants.
