Beauty queens competing in Miss Europe 2024 have come to blows after the Ukrainian representative accused her Russian competitor of bribing her way to victory.

Roza Gadieva, from the city of Kazan, took first place in the competition that was held from February 15 to 25 in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. In second place was a girl from Turkey, while Iryna Maksimovich from Vitebsk in Belarus, took third place. The Ukrainian, Milena Melnychuk, did not finish with a medal.

Speaking on Instagram, Melnychuk accused the Russian of buying her title.

"The Belarusian woman bought the third place for €5000+ and personally admitted it to everyone,” Melnychuk said. “The Russian Ministry of Culture bought the victory for their participant for €20,000+. Throughout the competition, she boasted about the help from the president.”

Melnychuk claimed that the organisers of the event were pro-Russian, and stated that they attempted to push an agenda of friendship between Russians and Ukrainians.

"They forced me to take pictures with the Russian woman, and when I aggressively refused, they threatened me and said I was stupid and didn't understand anything,” Melnychuk continued. “I have no complaints about her, she seemed normal as a person. The designer specifically gave us the same dresses so that we would look alike and like friends!”

In a separate post, Melnychuk published a video taken on a bus with all the participants from the event. On the bus, the third-placed contestant from Belarus can be heard lobbing insults at the Ukrainian.

“Are you at war? Or are you shaking your boobs at a beauty pageant?” Maksimovich said. “Here you are, Ukraine, saying 'Belarus is shit' and 'Russia is shit'. Ukraine, why did you come to shake your naked boobs? Why the f**k did you come to a beauty pageant?”