Topless woman storms Cannes red carpet to protest against sexual violence in Ukraine

Cannes: Throughout the fashion, film, and music history across the world, there have been multiple instances of individuals disrupting events to make a statement and as a mark of protest.

The latest such incident happened on Friday at the legendary Cannes Film Festival 2022 where a woman was seen stripped off on the red carpet to reveal her body painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag with the words "Stop Raping Us" in a solo protest.

According to firsthand accounts, she jumped onto the carpet, stripped off all of her clothes, and began screaming on her knees in front of photographers.

The protester also had the word SCUM on her back, together with red paint that resembled blood across her stomach and thighs. Cannes security had to rush and remove the protestor from the red carpet. The activist appears to belong to the French activist group SCUM, which posted an explanation on Twitter.

"This activist exposed the war rapes and sexual torture committed on Ukrainian women by Russian soldiers (sic)."

Festival attendees and onlookers appeared unfazed in videos and photographs of the incident. The stunt briefly interrupted the parade of guests in evening wear, including Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, attending the premiere of their film "Three Thousand Years of Longing" by George Miller.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that investigators had received reports of "hundreds of cases of rape" in areas previously occupied by Russian troops, including sexual assaults of small children.

Zelensky, a former actor, had also launched a video appeal for aid for his country at the Cannes opening ceremony on Tuesday.

The war has already been a major theme at the festival, with a special screening on Thursday of "Mariupolis 2", a documentary by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravicius, who was killed in Ukraine last month -- reportedly by Russian forces.