Inna Shevchenko

Inna Shevchenko (Ukrainian: Інна Шевченко) is a Ukrainian feminist activist and the leader of international women's movement FEMEN, which often demonstrates topless against what they perceive as manifestations of patriarchy, especially dictatorship, religion, and the sex industry. Shevchenko has a higher profile than the other members of the group. She was the leader of the three FEMEN activists reputedly kidnapped and threatened by the Belarus KGB in 2011. She achieved attention in Ukraine by cutting down a 4-metre high Christian cross with a chainsaw in central Kyiv in 2012. In 2013, Shevchenko was granted asylum in France, and now continues her activism by leading FEMEN France from a training base she has established in Paris. In July 2013, Olivier Ciappa, who together with David Kawena designed a new French stamp depicting Marianne, stated on Twitter that Shevchenko had been the main inspiration for the depiction. In 2025, she authored A Letter From The East (Une Lettre de l'Est), a novel that draws from the testimonies of dozens of Ukrainian women returned from Russian captivity exploring the horrors of the war in Ukraine. The novel was awarded the 2025 Prix des Femmes de Lettres.