Miss Ukraine didn’t win the weekend’s Miss Universe pageant. That honor went to Miss USA. But that wasn’t what broke Viktoria Apanasenko’s heart in New Orleans Saturday.
The 29-year-old from Chernihiv — who wore a black evening gown with a cape in the colors of the Ukraine flag to represent her war-torn country’s grief — told the Daily Beast seeing Miss Russia’s contestant parade across the stage sporting “the color of blood” really hit home.
“I am not sure the organizers understood what it felt like for me to be standing and smiling on the same stage with Miss Russia who was wearing a red dress, the color of blood,” Apanasenko said.
The pageant took place the same day a Russian missile killed more than 40 people in a residential building in Ukraine. The United Nations estimates upward of 7,000 civilians have been killed since Russia invaded Ukraine 11 months ago.
Apanasenko indicated it wasn’t just pageant organizers — whom she thanked for their support overall — who appeared oblivious.
“Some girls at Miss Universe did not know there was a war in Ukraine,” she said.
Apanasenko hoped Miss Russia would express sorrow for her country’s unprovoked invasion, but instead she approached her for a selfie “for what I think were propaganda purposes.”
It was the Ukrainian contestant’s hope she could use the high-profile pageant to speak at length about the war and found it “terribly painful” that wasn’t the case. She did send a message through her costume-segment gown, which included 16-foot-long wings inspired by the biblical archangel Michael, who defends goodness. Apanasenko called the costume Miss Russia wore honoring the Russian Empire “absurd.”
In another sign of the times, pageant officials found themselves responding to what they called “absurd” allegations online claiming the outcome was rigged. There were also claims that the pageant which made R’Bonney Gabriel of Texas Miss USA in October was fixed, according to Insider.
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