A model is facing death threats from Russia after posing for photos on top of the Kremlin's destroyed tanks.
Liziane Gutierrez, the Brazilian-born model with over a million followers on Instagram, has found herself in trouble after posing on top of burnt-out Russian tanks.
In mid-March, the model travelled to Ukraine to volunteer as an aid worker and posted photos of herself posing on top of destroyed tanks.
She left the photo online for just five minutes, but in that time a Russian soldier in Ukraine saw it and responded with a chilling message.
Liziane said that the soldier sent her a private message saying: "I’m going after you."
She continued: "I told him ‘do you want my address? Do you want to come here? Try it. Try your luck.’ Then he deleted his DM.”
The soldier's Instagram account is filled with pictures of Russian activities in Ukraine and he wasn't alone in his anger, as the model said her inbox filled up with hatred from across the globe.
“In the five minutes that the picture was there, I got everything you could possibly imagine,” Liziane continued.
“‘I hope you die in Ukraine, I hope a missile goes straight on your head’ and all this kind of stuff.”
Gutierrez is seen in a video on top of one of the tanks, before climbing down and swiping a “souvenir”.
She adds: “This is like a war movie set. It’s sad, but I don’t feel sad because they started this.”
Liziane said she and a fellow aid worker encountered the tanks en route to Bucha, a city in Ukraine's Kyiv Oblast where over 1,000 dead bodies were discovered.
She said the tanks were spotted as they were marked with the Z symbol, which has become synonymous with the Russian invaders.
She said: "We saw some people up on the tanks celebrating like ‘Slava Ukraini! Slava Ukraini!’ Of course, we had to stop.
“One of the tanks, my friend told me – and I don’t know if this is true or not – but they said that there was a body inside the tank. I took a picture that everybody from Ukraine was taking too.”
The model has been posting photos during the tenure of her aid trip and she said she has been accused of using it purely as a photo opportunity.
She said: "It’s not because I want to show off, nothing like that, but I think it’s important for people to see what’s really going on here. Not as a journalist, but as a volunteer that is living this 24/7.”
Liziane said: “I’m always trying to show what I’m doing and the people that we are helping. And then I posted this picture because everybody was celebrating and I said ‘okay, I’m going to pose too’. Everything I have done here was minimised to one picture.”
The famous model said Kharkiv, near the frontlines, is in desperate need and she hopes to go there soon as “there are a lot of people that need help”.
Liziane returned to Ukraine in mid-May, having spent nearly a month volunteering there between mid-March and mid-April.
