Ukraine war: LGBT troops fight Russians and attitudes at home

One couple was using the parade to come out to their families and military units. “This is a very emotional day for us,” they told me, not ready to reveal their names publicly. “We are proud we’ve been able to show people that there are lots of us gay soldiers, and that we are on the front lines defending Ukraine.”

The BBC has asked Ukraine’s military about the treatment of LGBT soldiers, but has not yet received a response.

Much of the work to increase the visibility of LGBT soldiers on the front line has been done by Viktor Pylypenko, the first openly gay soldier in the Ukrainian army, who went public about his sexuality in 2018.

The combat medic built an online community, encouraging serving soldiers to share their experiences on Instagram, after noticing that when he told people who he rescued from small front-line villages that he was gay, they often became more accepting.

“People’s attitudes are changing because they’ve heard our stories. For example there are many gay soldiers operating the air-defence systems in Kyiv and people are so grateful to them,” he said.

Viktor acknowledges that his community has been given a helping hand by Vladimir Putin, who, in his fixation with promoting traditional family values, has made homophobia part of his ideology. Ukrainians want to resist him any way they can.

“This is a war of values, and people understand that if we want to continue our integration into Europe, to join the EU, to join Nato, then we should embrace liberal values,” Viktor said.