Two ballet dancers join military to fight for Ukraine

A house is on fire following shelling on the town of Irpin, 26 kilometers west of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022. Russia's war on Ukraine is now in its ninth day and Russian forces have shelled Europe's largest nuclear power plant, sparking a fire there that was extinguished overnight. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Ratushniak)

Two ballet dancers for the National Opera of Ukraine are trading in their ballet slippers to take up arms to fight for the Ukrainian military.

Principal dancer Oleksii Potiomkin joined up with the armed forces and has been sharing pictures of himself on Instagram wearing camouflage, according to Vanity Fair Italy and Pointe Magazine.

The story of Potiomkin fighting for Ukraine after Russia launched an attack on the country last week went viral when Ukrainian-American writer Natalia Antonova posted about him on Twitter.

According to Ukrainian journalist Tetiana Danylenko and Oleksandra Matviichuk, the head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine, ballerina Lesya Vorotnyk has also joined the military to fight the Russian troops.