Russians threw a tantrum over the American transgender woman in the ranks of the AFU: who is Sarah Ashton-Cirillo and what she really does. Photo

Russian infospace was rocked by the news that an American transgender woman, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, became the official spokesperson for the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Propagandists exploded with homophobic rhetoric and tried to ridicule the Ukrainian army because of this.

However, they are unlikely to achieve the desired effect. The reasons were explained in Telegram by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar. According to her, Ashton-Cirillo - a US citizen who has been defending Ukraine since March 2022 - serves in the TRO of the AFU as a junior sergeant and is a combat medic.

"And the most important thing is that Sarah informs the English-speaking audience - objectively covers the events of the Russian-Ukrainian war, debunks Russian fakes and propaganda," - said Malyar.

According to her, the American woman has a large American audience - only on Twitter from June 25 to July 23, Sarah's reach amounted to 28.3 million users.

"So, why the enemy social networks were so excited by the heath, it is clear. However, it only increased Sarah's audience," the Defense Department spokeswoman noted.

Oleksiy Dmytrashkovsky, head of the press center of the Defense Forces, reported about Sarah's appointment back in June.

"The purpose of this project is to bring to the citizens of the United States and Europe truthful operational information about the events in Ukraine, about the course of hostilities. To give Russian propagandists no chance to distort information," he wrote at the time.

Sarah Ashton-Cirillo was born July 9, 1977 in North Florida and has lived in Las Vegas since 2004. During her life, she worked as a real estate analyst and communications director, but later became passionate about journalism and politics. In 2015, she traveled to Syrian refugee camps in Turkey, an experience she then described in her book "Along the Paths of Tears." In 2019, Ashton-Cirillo decided to undergo a sex change.

With the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the journalist planned to visit Poland to research the refugee crisis. However, after a few days she traveled to Kharkiv, on the outskirts of which at that time there was heavy fighting.

According to Xtra Magazine, Ashton-Cirillo is the only transgender journalist covering the invasion of Ukraine.

As Ashton-Cirillo wrote early on in her time in Ukraine, her transgender transition allowed her to move forward, bypass fear, and "focus on why I am more than 6,000 miles from home trying to illuminate the genocide taking place in the post-Soviet state" .

"One of the reasons why I decided is that nothing has ever been stronger in the fight for freedom, liberation and democracy than what the Ukrainian people are doing," the woman also explained to the American media.

On the morning of February 23, 2023, Sarah was wounded at the front. The girl lost part of her arm, and her face will forever be scarred. However, the American woman proudly wrote that the battle they won.

As reported OBOZREVATEL:

- on the front in Ukraine was wounded former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed, who in April 2022 managed to be released from a Russian prison, after which he left to fight for Ukraine. He is now being treated in Germany;

- a 26-year-old American volunteer, Cooper "Harris" Andrews, died fighting Russian occupiers on the frontline in Ukraine. He gave his life in the fortress city of Bakhmut, Donetsk region, for which brutal fighting continues.

Only verified information from us in Telegram-channel Obozrevatel, Threads and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!