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Feature
The gay Ukrainians 'hunted' by Russian soldiers and the allies helping them escape
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.
Published 22 February 2023 7:57am
By Sandra Fulloon, Lera Shvets
Source: SBS News
Image: Renee Dixson (left) and Marianna Polevikova in Canberra. (SBS News / Kevin Hudson)
Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault and suicide.
It was 13 May when Ukrainians Svitlana and Kateryna* said three armed Russian soldiers burst into the small abandoned house where they had been living.
“One of them definitely had a gun,” Svitlana said.
“They saw our disassembled bed, on which we sleep, and one of the soldiers asked us, ‘What are you, those 'pinks'?”
The lesbian couple had moved from the Ukrainian city of Kherson to the outskirts of the town of Oleshki after Russia's invasion in February last year, but say they couldn't escape the war.
“We 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.
“After the violence, the attackers turned over everything looking for money and jewellery. We had nothing and they left.”
The abandoned international airport in the Ukranian city of Kherson in February 2023. Source: Getty / Scott Peterson
“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.”
They held them in a house and humiliated them, raped them.- Vitalii Tsariuk, LGBT Human Rights Nash Svit Centre
SBS News was unable to independently verify these claims but they are just two of the 105 alleged cases of human rights violations the Nash Svit Centre, a non-governmental organisation, said it has documented in the past year, including in . It said it had also received 50 calls to its hotline.
Mr Tsariuk, who is gay, also alleged: “[Russian soldiers] have lists of LGBTQ activists who appear on television and participate. I know about those lists and I thought I would be on there also”.
Marianna Polevikova said she got out just in time, fleeing her home in Kherson on the day Russian tanks invaded Ukraine, just weeks before it was occupied.
Marianna Polevikova, pictured in Australia, is helping LGBTIQ+ Ukrainians. Source: SBS News / Kevin Hudson
Ms 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.
in February from the United States representative to the Office of the United Nations Ambassador, Bathsheba Nell Crocker, stating the US had “credible information that indicates Russian forces are creating a target list of Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps in the event of a military occupation, among them journalists, activists and gay rights advocates”.
The Russian government denied the claims, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calling it an “absolute fiction”.
Kherson was liberated on 9 November but Ms Polevikova said during the Russian occupation, members of the LGBTIQ+ community experienced sexual violence, imprisonment and torture.
She cites the personal experiences of people she has since helped to evacuate through a coalition of Kherson LGBTIQ+ organisations.
“In occupied Kherson, Russian soldiers have hunted and abused LGBTIQ+ people,” she said.
“They [Russian soldiers] would set up fake dates through a dating site. Many LGBTIQ+ people were taken hostage.
“We know of some taken into torture rooms, lesbians that were unfortunately raped, some people were shot in the legs, some people went missing and still have not been found.
In occupied Kherson, Russian soldiers have hunted and abused LGBTIQ+ people.- Marianna Polevikova, For Equal Rights
The allegations also extend to the broader LGBTIQ+ community, she said.
“Transgender people were afraid to go out because the Russian soldiers would randomly stop them, people who had tattoos with Ukrainian and LGBTIQ+ symbols were in danger.”
Ms Polevikova is now living in Berlin and is visiting Australia this week as part of Sydney WorldPride events to raise awareness of continuing concerns for LGBTIQ+ Ukranians.
She has been working with her Canberra-based friend Renee Dixson to move about 300 members of the community to safer areas in Ukraine and overseas.
Mx Dixson, who is a queer non-binary Ukranian, left Kherson more than a decade ago and is the co-founder of the Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN).
Renee Dixson in Canberra. Credit: SBS / Kevin Hudson
“The invasion was horrific for everyone, and unfortunately, LGBTIQ+ people were in a more precarious and vulnerable position.
“The first thing that I did that day ... was call my friend [Ms Polevikova] and I ask her to find a car and take family and friends from the LGBTIQ+ community and to evacuate the city of Kherson.”
Allegations of human rights abuses against LGBTIQ+ people come as no surprise to Amnesty International in Australia.
“Russia has a track record of targeting the rainbow community,” its representative Lucy Kenny said.
“Although we don't have specific evidence on what's happening in Ukraine right now, Russia operates a state-sanctioned regime of homophobia.”
Russia has a track record of targeting the rainbow community.- Lucy Kenny, Amnesty International
In December, laws were introduced and restrict the "demonstration" of LGBTIQ+ behaviour. The legislation prohibits any action or information that is considered an attempt to promote homosexuality and breaches can incur a heavy fine.
“There is a lot of hatred and homophobia distributed by the Kremlin,” Ambassador of Ukraine to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said.
“So naturally when they occupied Ukraine, they were looking for the LGBTIQ+ community and targeting them specifically.
He said the allegations also extended to other groups.
“Russian soldiers are also targeting women ... They are targeting religious minorities. They're targeting ethnic minorities. The crimes are quite numerous.”
Russia has repeatedly denied its soldiers have committed war crimes during the invasion.
In a statement translated by SBS Russian, a spokesperson for the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Australia described claims of targeted attacks on Ukraine’s LGBTIQ+ community as a fabrication.
“These accusations are, frankly, delusional and are reminiscent of stories about the alleged sexual atrocities of the Russian military which the Australian media published willingly last year. SBS was no exception,” they said.
“The primary source of this so-called information was Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s former Ombudsman for Human Rights. She later admitted that she basically invented these chilling stories, so that ‘the world would not forget about Kyiv.’”
The statement refers to comments made by Ms Denisova last year about alleged rape cases against Russian soldiers. Ms Denisova was removed from office after a vote of no-confidence in May. She said at the time she would appeal the decision.
“The SBS audience should know this story in order to perceive this new batch of fabrications in the right context,“ the embassy statement said.
Andriy Maymulakhin, head of the Nash Svit Centre, said one year on from the invasion, some members of the community who remain in occupied areas remain fearful.
“Such people are subjected to insults, violence, extortion, restriction of freedom, and their very lives are in danger.
“Transgender people are afraid to go out into the streets because if the Russian soldiers ask for their documents and they see it says 'man' and the person looks like a woman, then it is a big question.”
His colleague Mr Tsariuk said the number of alleged assaults could also be much higher than reported as those still in occupied areas fear retribution for themselves or their families if they speak about their experiences.
Hate crime monitor Vitalii Tsariuk. Source: Supplied / Vitalii Tsariuk
They also raise funds for food and hormone therapy for transgender people, delivered with the help of local volunteers.
But even after arriving in new countries, including Australia, some members of the LGBTIQ+ community can continue to face social barriers and abuse, according to a recent survey by FDPN called Inhabiting Two Worlds at Once.
“We found out horrific information and data,” Mx Dixson said.
Of the 82 LGBTIQ+ respondents in Australia, one-third chose not to answer a question about violence experienced in Australia, but 60 per cent who did said they had experienced at least one form of violence since arriving.
FDPN also cites global data which suggests up to six per cent of refugees are members of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Mx Dixson is calling on the Australian government to introduce separate quotas and provide more specific support for LGBTIQ+ refugees.
“We are losing members not only in Ukraine, but in Afghanistan, in Iran,” Mx Dixson said.
“We need to do more for communities around the world that are suffering under homophobia and transphobia, creating safe and welcoming spaces in host countries, to help people find pathways to belonging.”
SBS News has contacted the Department of Home Affairs for comment.
Australia has given $655 million to Ukraine over the past year, including $65 million in humanitarian assistance.
The Queer Displacements conference organised by the Forcibly Displaced People Network (FDPN) will be held on 22-23 February at the University of Western Sydney as part of Sydney WorldPride.
*Names have been changed
If you or someone you know is impacted by sexual assault, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit . In an emergency, call 000.
LGBTIQ+ Australians seeking support with mental health can contact QLife on 1800 184 527 or visit . also has a list of support services.
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