Russian occupation authorities targeted members of the LGBTQ+ community during the occupation of Kherson back in 2022, Ukrainian public organization Projektor announced on March 28.
Russia occupied parts of the Kherson region between March and November 2022. Throughout the occupation, the Russian military specifically sought out and targeted Ukrainian LGBTQ+ individuals.
Projektor indicates that abuses committed by the Russian military against this community could amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity, including gender-based prosecution.
War crimes include acts such as deliberate attacks on civilians, attacks on cultural sites or medical institutions, torture, and deportations.
The report documented several instances, for example, in which Russian authorities forced men to undress at checkpoints and searched for tattoos of a rainbow image, as well as checked phones for gay dating apps.
Between March and Sept. 2023, Projektor interviewed 107 LGBTQ+ people who were victims or witnesses of these crimes.
LGBTQ+ victims did not contact Ukrainian law enforcement to report abuse by Russian authorities for fear of further ridicule. When the Projektor study began, the Kherson Office of the Attorney General had not investigated any war crimes against LGBTQ+ people living in the occupied territories.
Russia's crackdown on gay rights intensified following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Back in December 2022, the Russian State Duma passed legislation banning the public expression of LGBT identity.
Late last year, Russia's Supreme Court declared the "international LGBT social movement" to be an "extremist organization" and banned its activities.
Accordin to Veronika Plotnikova, the head of the Coordinating Center for Support of Victims and Witnesses of the Prosecutor General's Office, Ukraine has collected pretrial information on over 128,000 victims of war crimes.
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