By Brian Dooley
Kharkiv City – The recent Russian offensive in northeastern Ukraine has made June a nervous Pride month for the LGBTQ+ community here in Kharkiv City.
On May 10 Russia launched a new offensive campaign towards the city, Ukraine’s second largest. The Russians have taken several villages along the main road to Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border, and dozens of civilians have been killed in the city by Russian missiles in recent weeks.
Military experts assess that the Russian army is aiming to get within artillery range of the city.
Local LGBTQ+ group Alliance.Global has been forced to draw up evacuation plans, which will be triggered if Russian soldiers get to within 30km (19 miles) of the city. They’re now 35-40km (22-25 miles) away, but things appear to have stabilized for now, with the Russian advance halted.
Vasyl Malikov, the Kharkiv coordinator of Alliance.Global, says despite the immediate threats they have to think longer term. “We have to think beyond emergency support, and to develop the LGBTQ+ community to build long-term resilience. We’re working on longer term educational plans, on programs for HIV prevention,” he said.
Regular missile attacks on the city make public Pride events in Kharkiv impossible this year, although some are being planned in the capital Kyiv for this weekend. Here, the focus is on the months and years ahead. “We’re planning work that assumes the war will continue for the foreseeable future, probably for some years to come. It’s impossible to make post-war plans now. The last few months taught me everything is possible, that you can’t predict anything, and that things can get worse,” said Malikov.
The LGBTQ+ community here is used to confronting serious challenges. I have been reporting from here on their difficulties and successes for years, and the crucial role local activists have played in helping the city and region since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Human Rights First has for a decade worked with local human rights defenders (HRDs) in Ukraine to advocate for reforms. In July 2014 I was in Kyiv to take part in the Pride events, but they were suddenly canceled the day before, with authorities saying they could not guarantee our safety.
There has been some progress, with a serious national discussion under way about legalizing same-sex civil partnerships. National surveys since the 2022 invasion suggest a sharp change in Ukrainian public attitudes. Those who now express a “negative view” of the LGBTQ+ community have dropped by more than a third from six years previously, down from 60.4 percent to 38.2 percent. Over 40 percent of Ukrainians polled support civil partnerships, with 35 percent also in favor of same-sex marriage.
Priorities for Pride 2024 across Ukraine include support for the civil partnerships legislation and progress on anti-hate speech laws. The civil partnerships issue has been simmering for some time now, and has support from the Council of Europe. But while new anti-hate laws are a precondition of the European integration process, civil partnerships are not.
In Kharkiv there is some local progress. The region’s LGBTQ+ communities now have access to STI tests and combined antigen and antibody tests for HIV they didn’t have before. And Alliance.Global is planning to move into bigger new offices with rooms for psychologists, for distributing humanitarian aid, and for events.
But because this is Kharkiv, finding an office isn’t easy. Russian attacks have damaged and destroyed much of the city’s infrastructure, and homes and offices that rely on central heating rather than electricity are vulnerable to freezing in the winter months. And for now, locals are anxiously checking the news for the latest on the fighting outside the city.
“Things have definitely become more intense in the last few weeks,” said Malikov. “Lots of people have left the city, but personally I don’t want to evacuate. I did that once before in 2020 and don’t want to again. I’ll stay here until the end.”
