Woman strips off on the red carpet in Cannes to protest Ukraine rapes

Wearing underpants stained red, the demonstrator shouted and posed for photographers before being led off by security guards.

The stunt briefly interrupted the parade of guests in evening wear, including Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, attending the premiere of their film Three Thousand Years of Longing by George Miller.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that investigators had received reports of “hundreds of cases of rape” in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children.

UKRAINE GETS SPOTLIGHTS AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Zelensky, a former actor, launched a video appeal for aid for his country at the Cannes opening ceremony on Tuesday.

The war has already been a major theme at the festival, with a special screening on Thursday of Mariupolis 2, a documentary by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed in Ukraine last month – reportedly by Russian forces.

Ukraine’s beleaguered filmmakers will get a special day at the industry marketplace on Saturday and one of its most promising directors, Sergei Loznitsa, will show The Natural History of Destruction, about the bombing of German cities in World War II.

© Agence France-Presse