An Italian pilot who was kicked out of the Italian Air Force academy for complaining about hazing has gone to Ukraine to fight.
Giulia Schiff is the only woman currently enrolled in the International Legion among thousands of other volunteers.
The 23-year-old is in Kyiv fighting as a Special Forces soldier in Volodymyr Zelensky's International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine.
Ms Schiff's military career in Italy was cut short when she was kicked out of the Italian Air Force Academy in 2018 after she reported alleged hazing she had suffered at the hands of eight sergeants.
She made headlines two years ago when footage emerged of her being injured by colleagues in an initiation prank.
The pilot said that her head was pounded against the wing of a plane, her backside whipped and she was thrown into a swimming pool during the "hazing" ritual.
The young woman was axed from the air force after complaining about the prank - although her military bosses claimed she was expelled for "insufficient military aptitude".
The day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine officially began, Ms Schiff posted on Facebook that she had not seen from Europe "the reaction that Ukraine deserves for the havoc wrought on them by Putin".
She wrote: "There is no justification for not reacting. Acting is a duty.
"We need to help a country that cannot defend itself, invaded by one of the world's powers, among other things for ridiculous reasons..."
She reportedly left for Ukraine, in utmost secrecy, a few days after her Facebook post.
After a few days of training Ms Schiff was given her first missions, gun in hand, near the Ukrainian capital.
It is currently unclear where exactly she is, largely due to security reasons, but Schiff has reportedly been in touch with an Italian journalist, with whom she is said to have been friends for some years.
She told the journalist: "I was born for this, to help our Ukrainian brothers and to prevent the war from reaching us."
She also reportedly said: "I am going against the tide. While many are fleeing, I head towards the fighting areas."
Images posted to her Instagram account show her in military gear.
Ms Schiff is not planning on returning home until the war is won.
"How many useless words, but what penalties? How come we are able to really help and instead we just watch?" she told Italian media.
"Are they really worried about the price of petrol and the refugees who will emigrate? All this hypocrisy will have consequences. Shame."
