Ivan Gonzyk (Credit Ivan Gonzyk / Instagram). Used with permission. This article by journalist Maryna Bakyeva was first published in Geneva Solutions. An edited version is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices. LGBTQ+ representatives within the Ukrainian army are rarely portrayed. In 2018, Viktor Pylypenko, an openly gay veteran of the Donbas Volunteer Battalion, decided to change that by forming LGBT Military, a union of military, veterans, and volunteers fighting for equal rights. This piece explores how his idea came about, alongside the stories of two other soldiers from the LGBTQ+ community that the union has helped to support. Around 330,000 Ukrainians have taken part in the Ukraine government’s military operation against Russia-led militants in the east of the country since 2014, but there is no public information about how many of them are members of the LGBTQ+ community. This is what motivated We Were Here, a Kyiv-born photography project featuring members of the Ukraine forces of diverse gender and sexual orientations. The pictures were taken by Anton Shebetko, a Ukrainian artist and photographer who lives in Amsterdam. “The ‘We Were Here’ project aims to shine a light on the people who are on the one hand modern-day heroes of Ukrainian society and on the other, are being ignored by most of their compatriots,” Shebetko said. Most of the people in the photographs have their faces covered. One of the soldiers, Viktor Pylypenko, came out during the exhibition, becoming the first openly gay person in Ukraine who was known to take part in the Russian–Ukrainian war. That moment also marked the beginning of the creation of LGBT Military, as it inspired Pylypenko to set up the association. The union has been sharing stories of LGBTQ+ soldiers on its Instagram page to raise awareness of the community and the profiles of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other diverse identities within the armed forces. These are the stories of two people featured on the page. Illia Leontiev, 24, serves in the Kyiv territorial defense forces. He wanted to join the army even before the all-out war. On February 24, Leontiev was planning to work as a life drawing model at a university until the sound of the sirens woke him at 4 am. “I couldn’t believe this was really happening,” he said. His first reaction was to contact his family and check if they were ok. “Then I packed a bag and started thinking about what to do next,” he recalled. Leontiev ended up working as a liaison officer in the territorial defense forces. His role is to mend networks, set up antennas, and program walkie-talkies. “Territorial defense forces are quite different from the army and from what I was expecting. I thought that I would be getting a lot of physical training and a balanced diet but it’s not like that. It was very scary when there was a shelling attack and a missile landed 150 meters away,” Leontiev said. Before the war, Leontiev frequented a Kyrylivska Street nightclub in Kyiv. The club was known to be very friendly to the LGBTQ+ community and was subjected to attacks from far-right organizations, which were often violent and aggressive. Leontiev says that he doesn’t like confrontation and has been choosing his conversation partners and topics carefully. “I never faced any aggression myself: neither in the territorial defense, nor in day-to-day life. But I know that some people in territorial defense are not LGBTQ+ friendly,” he said. Despite some negative experiences faced by his community, Leontiev believes that Ukraine is becoming more tolerant and there is less discrimination. “It is important to acknowledge that LGBTQ+ representatives are taking part in the war, too,” he said. “We defend our state exactly the same way that others do. A lot of people have been supporting me, especially after I came out. So, LGBTQ+ Military serves a very important role.” Ivan Gonzyk, 26, says that it’s high time that Ukrainians make a decisive move towards accepting the LGBTQ+ community. “We are close to being accepted in the European Union. We are not in Russia. Here in Ukraine, we are not a homophobic country,” Gonzyk said. “Everyone stands together at this difficult time: regardless if they’re queer or straight. They volunteer together, they join the armed forces of Ukraine. This should unite us and bring an end to all the misunderstanding.” That’s how he ended up working as a military doctor in the ATO zone — the area where the Ukrainian government carried out a military operation against Russia-led militants — in Bakhmut of the Donetsk region. Gonzyk has now joined his territorial defense force.