March 8 was International Women’s Day, a good day to be a woman anywhere, but an especially good day in the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

That’s because the Russia-backed-rebels there took a break from fighting the Kiev government to celebrate Women’s Day in the most feminist way possible, a beauty pageant.

All the contestants are active fighters for the Donetsk People’s Republic, and like all the good people’s republics, women there can serve in the military and raise a family but have no hope of wielding any real political power in their lifetimes.

But, if they wanted political agency they wouldn’t be fighting against the successor state to Yulia Tymoshenko’s Ukraine. So, enjoy your People’s Republic while it lasts, ladies.