Ukraine|On Sunday, a march was held in Kiev for sexual and gender minorities for the first time since the beginning of the great invasion of Russia.
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The first Pride parade of sexual and gender minorities was organized in Kyiv since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The event of 500 participants went peacefully despite the counter-demonstration. The time and place of the procession were not public information for security reasons.
The participants in the procession demanded that gender-neutral civil unions be allowed.
“I am very happy that I live in a country where I can participate in Pride”, Dina Ivanova told news agency AFP in Kyiv on Sunday.
“Those damn Russians can’t,” Ivanova continued. He refers to the repression by the Russian regime target their own minorities.
On Sunday, the first Pride parade of sexual and gender minorities was organized in the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv, since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Among the rainbow flags, the flags of Ukraine and the EU flew in the procession, as well as flags with a terrain pattern shining in the colors of the rainbow, decorated with the coat of arms of Ukraine.
Ukraine, which is seeking EU and NATO membership, has tried to position itself closer to European liberal values and further away from the “traditional” world of values emphasized by Russia.
Processional the participants demanded that the Ukrainian government, for example, allow gender-neutral civil unions.
In a country at war, the fact that gender-neutral unions are not officially recognized can mean, in practice, that a same-sex partner may not even be told if the partner is wounded or killed.
The state of war was also more directly visible at Kyiv Pride: the parade demanded, among other things, the arming of Ukraine and joining NATO.
Soldiers openly belonging to sexual and gender minorities also took part in the procession. One of them, Petro Žeruhatold AFP that he was given time off from his unit to participate in the procession.
Ukrainian soldiers and activists of sexual and gender minorities who took part in the Pride parade carried a banner with pictures of fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
The person who participated in the Pride parade had a poster with them, which wished for Ukraine to join the military alliance NATO and peace in Europe.
Soldiers also marched in the procession.
“Threatsdespite the pressure, all the dangers and even the rain, we came to demand our rights”, the Kyiv Pride event said in its publication message service in X on Sunday.
The event of about 500 participants went peacefully despite the counter-demonstration that shouted insults and death threats.
According to AFP, the counter-demonstration gathered a couple of hundred people.
The time and place of the Pride parade were not publicly announced for security reasons. Instead of an actual moving procession, it was mostly a stationary gathering in a strictly controlled area, which was protected by a large number of police, AFP says.
About problems had been warned in advance.
Association of Sexual and Gender Minorities of Current and Former Soldiers of Ukraine had warned on Saturday about a possible attack or provocation that the Pride parade could face.
There had already been protests against the parade on Friday, when several dozen people demonstrated against the Pride parade in front of the Kyiv City Hall.
Cancellation demands and threats had also been spread online.
Before the war, the procession has in some years been the target of attacks by extreme right-wing groups.
Last in the Kyiv Pride parade was organized in Liverpool, England. Earlier in the same year, Liverpool also organized the Eurovision Song Contest, which could not be held in Ukraine due to the state of war.
The Kyiv Pride parade also gathered a crowd of several hundred counter-protesters.
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