LGBTQ people were tortured: human rights defenders recorded the crimes of Russians in the Kherson region

Russians tortured and raped LGBTQ representatives in the Kherson region because of their sexual orientation – human rights defenders

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During the occupation of the right bank of the Kherson region, the Russian military imprisoned, tortured and sexually assaulted representatives of the LGBTQ community.

The reasons for the torture were precisely the orientation and gender identification of people, it is said in the report of the public organization “Prozhektor”.

During March-September 2023, the project’s lawyers interviewed 107 LGBTQ people who became victims or witnesses of Russian crimes. The report itself describes 8 cases.

“According to numerous testimonies and testimonies of people who left the occupied territories at the time, the Russian military purposefully searched for people belonging to the LGBTQ community. For example, there is evidence that the Russian military forced men to undress, checked smartphones for the presence of same-sex applications dating”, – the report says.

A man named Oleksiy was held captive by the Russians for 64 days. He was detained because of a photo of a gay theme, which was discovered during a phone check at a checkpoint. They put the man in a van and started beating him. When Oleksiy was brought to the detention center, a red dress was brought to his cell and he was forced to wear it during interrogations.

The Russian military found an LGBTQ flag at Diana’s lesbian home. When they found out about the orientation of the girl, they hit her in the face with the butt of a machine gun, put a bag on her head and took her in an unknown direction. Due to physical abuse and threats, Diana allegedly agreed to share information about her LGBTQ acquaintances. Another time, the girl witnessed the shooting of people who were kept in isolation: out of 15, only four survived.

32-year-old Nikita, who is gay, was detained by the Russians for photographing the movement of their equipment. He was tortured with electric current, simulated drowning and beaten. During the week of captivity, the man lost 20 kilograms.

According to human rights defenders, victims of crimes did not turn to law enforcement because of distrust in the system. Therefore, at the time of the investigation, the Attorney General’s Office had no recorded war crimes against LGBTQ people from the occupied territories.

According to other people’s testimony, the Russians also raped gay men. One of the victims, whose case is known to human rights defenders, committed suicide.

“Evidence indicates that LGBTQ human rights violations occurred during the Russian occupation, some of which may amount to war crimes or crimes against humanity.

After interviewing two people, the lawyers of the “Prozhektor” NGO helped to make statements about a criminal offense to the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, and in one of these cases, the indictment was transferred to the national court. – the report says.

We would like to remind Ukrainians who were sexually abused by the occupiers, plan to pay urgent interim reparations – one-time monetary assistance.