LGBT people in the Russo-Ukrainian War

After Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and the subsequent creation of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, two Russian puppet states in eastern Ukraine, thus beginning the Russo-Ukrainian War, the number of homophobic hate attacks - including those committed by the government - in Russia has sharply increased.

Russia is portrayed as a bastion of conservative values, such as tradition, a strict social hierarchy and sexual order, and the prominent role played by religion.

While domestic anti-LGBT movements weakened and lost popularity, Russia remained a source of homophobic sentiment exported into Ukraine.

Under the pro-Russian president Victor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian parliament introduced bills to ban "gay propaganda" similar to the Russian model three times.

[7][8][9] In August 2015, a blogger called the police office of the LPR, saying he wanted to file a report about a so-called "heterosexual brothel" in Luhansk city.

[10][11][12] Since the times of the Soviet Union, when sodomy was a criminal offense, the Simeiz resort in Crimea has been a popular destination for LGBTQ tourism.

The human rights organization Memorial documented cases in which police officers used torture to force LGBT Crimeans, as well as other vulnerable groups, to hand over their property and real estate.

[7] In Vladimir Putin's address On conducting a special military operation in which he announced the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, his rationale for war included claims that he was protecting traditional values from Western progressive attitudes "that are directly leading to degradation and degeneration, because they are contrary to human nature" - referring to the acceptance and legal recognition of LGBT people in Western countries.

[21] Due to the closure of borders for men 18–60 years old in Ukraine, Ukrainian transgender women who had not completed their legal transition and still retained the "male" gender marker in their documents could not leave the country.

As a consequence, "if a queer [Ukrainian] soldier is injured or killed in action, the lack of legal recognition of same-sex partnerships means that their significant other will not be afforded the right to make medical decisions on their behalf, bury them, or collect any state compensation."