'We did not run away': Ukraine's LGBTQ+ community fights homophobia on the frontlines

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, members of the LGBTQ+ community and activists have been visibly joining and helping Ukraine’s army - with some hoping their participation will erode prejudice.

With this goal in mind, one LGBTQ+ organization even donated to Azov, a far-right group with a history of extreme homophobia before the war.

Anastasia is a Lesbian who has been volunteering on and off with the army since Russia first invaded in 2014.

While she spent five years as a civilian before the war began on February 24, she immediately volunteered to work as a drone operator as fighting broke out.

When Russian forces were originally circling the country’s capital, she worked only 20 kilometres from the frontlines around Kyiv.

“We have a problem of homophobia [in Ukraine],” she told Euronews. “And now that the war has begun, people have asked ‘where are your LGBTQ+ soldiers?’

“And here we are. We are on the front lines. We did not run away. We are not hiding. We are defending.”

She also said that she was fighting because of what could happen if Ukraine loses the war.

“It is also a question of freedom because Russians will come here,” she said. “If they come here, they will arrest and kill us,” she told Euronews.

“Because we are both LGBTQ+ Ukrainians and Ukrainian patriots. Can you imagine what it will be like [if they win]?”

Anastasia is part of an organisation of LGBTQ+ soldiers and veterans in Ukraine, a group that marched with Kyiv Pride in 2018, and that is working to make the community more visible.

Activists have also been making gains in the country over the past couple of years.

For example, before the current war, organisers were trying to pass an anti-discrimination law that would criminalise hate crimes committed