A year since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine, allegations persist of LGBTIQ+ people being targeted in occupied areas. Friends Marianna Polevikova and Renee Dixson are offering members of the community a lifeline.
Lesbian couple Ukrainians Svitlana* and Kateryna* tells sbs.com.au that they were raped. «Me and my girlfriend, using physical force», Svitlana said, her words published in a report by Ukraine’s LGBT Human Rights Nash Svit Centre in November 2022.
In another case, a group of young men accused of being gay were allegedly taken hostage by Russian soldiers.
«They held them in a house and humiliated them, raped them», said Vitalii Tsariuk, a hate crime monitor for the centre who spoke to SBS News from a safe house in Odesa.
«It was group rape and then they pissed on them».
«In the morning they threw them outside. These young men were aged between 19 and 21. One of them later took his own life».
Marianna Polevikova, the managing director of LGBTIQ+ organisation For Equal Rights, who is a lesbian, said her concerns were heightened by international reports that surfaced prior to the invasion, claiming Russian soldiers planned to target certain groups. Ms. Polevikova fleeing her home in Kherson on the day Russian tanks invaded Ukraine.
*Names have been changed
