Deutsche Welle (English edition)
LGBTQ troops and vets go to war with homophobia in Ukraine
They are patriots who have defended their country on the front lines. But LGBTQ soldiers in Ukraine's military have rights to fight for, too.
The silence inside a makeshift cinema in the heart of Kyiv was shattered with the crash of a windowpane. Fireworks flashed. Homophobic attackers were attempting to besiege the screening of a film about the lives of LGBTQ people. The assailants threw tear gas and pyrotechnics. A member of the audience jumped up onto the windowsill and began throwing the projectiles back onto the street — shocking the men outside, who quickly ran away.
That man was Viktor Pylypenko, a former member of the Ukrainian army's anti-terror detail in Donbass and the founder of a federation for equal rights for LGBTQ communities. Now a trim 34-year-old sporting a hoodie and earrings like a proper big-city hipster, Pylypenko was a volunteer in the Donbass Battalion during intense fighting against separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014 to 2016. On the front, comrades called him the "Frenchman," on account of his work as a trained translator of English and French.
In the summer of 2018, Pylypenko became the first Ukrainian soldier to publicly declare his homosexuality. "It was scary of course, like stepping into the unknown," he said. Pylypenko had kept the fact that he liked men to himself, not telling the soldiers with whom he shared the trenches.
"It was a constant game of hide-and-seek," Pylypenko said. "I slept with women so no one would think I was gay." His comrades sometimes brought their wives and children to the barracks to introduce them to everyone. "Something like that is simply impossible for gay and lesbian soldiers," he said.
After coming out, Pylypenko felt empowered to approach dozens of gay, lesbian and transgender active-duty soldiers and veterans. In 2019, about 30 of them formed an advocacy group for LGBTQ service people and participated in Kyiv's March for Equality for the first time.
Today, the group has more than 100 members — and it's growing. "In some units, they may talk about LGBTQ rights in the military on their smoke break," Pylypenko said. "Afterwards, somebody will Google our group and get in touch."
Support and attacks
One of those people is Serhiy Afanasiev, a 23-year-old special forces soldier, who recently came out on social media. He was encouraged to do so by comrades in the LGBTQ group. Afanasiev said he was relieved that he no longer had to live a double life. Comrades on the front lines were accepting: "I have a good commander. He told me it's my life and he has no right to get involved. I serve well, and that is enough for him."
A soldier from another unit said she had decided not to come out yet."Only a very few people that I really trust know that I am bisexual," said the soldier, who asked that her name not be used. "Unfortunately, there is still a lot of superstition around the topic in society. But I am planning my coming out soon. I guess then I'll have to
clean up my 'friends' lists."
Pylypenko said the ways in which comrades might react to a soldier's coming out depend a lot on the unit and its commander. When he came out, he said, he was subjected to verbal abuse on social media. Most of his colleagues, however, voiced support: "especially those with whom I fought against the enemy, with those I saved the wounded with."
Nevertheless, in 2019, at a memorial service commemorating the Battle of Ilovaisk, Pylypenko was physically assaulted by a former comrade. "I had bruises on my back and my face," he said. "I didn't defend myself but instead tried to calm him with reason."
Combat experience helpful
Like other LGBTQ people, queer soldiers don't necessarily feel safe on the streets. Even though police have increased their presence at LGBTQ events since anti-gay assailants injured 10 people when they attacked the March for Equality in 2015, homophobic gangs often go on "safaris" in which "small groups chase LGBTQ activists — often those sporting brightly colored hair or rainbow symbols — through the city," Pylypenko said.
LGBTQ soldiers have not reacted with violence. "There have been times when people have told me I need to hit back," Pylypenko said. "But I shut them down. Because, if you react with physical violence, you justify the violence being used against you." He said LGBTQ communities should take a stand against violence, but not with fists, and most certainly not with weapons.
The most powerful weapon LGTBQ soldiers have in their arsenal is public relations. Like other advocacy groups, they are fighting for civil partnerships, the same-sex marriage alternative found in many countries but still illegal in Ukraine.
Pylypenko said civil partnerships were especially important for soldiers who risked their lives every day lines in Donbass, as well as for veterans who could be called up again if the situation escalates. Ukrainian law does not treat the partners of LGBTQ members of the military as it does the spouses and children of heterosexual soldiers wounded or killed in combat. "When a gay or lesbian soldier dies," he said, "their family is essentially cut off."
There are several legislative proposals for civil partnerships, yet none of them has made it to the parliament for debate. "The war has been going on for eight years now, and the risks remain the same," Pylypenko. "Give us equality: We have sworn loyalty to the Ukrainian people. We have bled for our country: We have earned the right to equality."
Advocates for LGBTQ communities say the soldiers' work has begun to shift views in society. Ukrainians see the military and veterans as defenders of their homeland, and the army enjoys more public trust than any other institution in the country.
Contrived Russia allegations
In March, Pylypenko's group invited LGBTQ people to join a new unit within the Ukrainian army. The impetus for forming a subunit tasked with creat
ing a more psychologically pleasant atmosphere for queer soldiers in the army came from a commander who belongs to an LGBTQ group himself.
The idea was not run past army leadership, and the name of the unit remains secret. "There could homophobes in the military command who simply wouldn't allow such a unit to exist," Pylypenko said.
Recruiting has been slow. People who wish to join the unit must be physically and mentally fit for the challenge, and not everyone is cut out for it. Secondly, Pylypenko said, recruits have reconsidered after allegations by homophobic groups that LGBTQ advocates have collaborated with Russia to discredit the Ukrainian army.
"One of our aims is to expose the lies of Russian propaganda myths that claim Ukraine is being ruled by a 'neo-Nazi junta,'" Pylypenko said. "How could there be talk of neo-Nazis in an army that has gay-friendly units, and in which gay and lesbian active-duty and veteran service members can come out without fear?"
"Why should we look to Russia?" Pylypenko said. "We were part of that empire. Why should we have to listen to them trash the Ukrainian military and the LGBTQ community? We must look to the free world, to Europe. We must aspire to democratic values."
cerned, it would not be advisable to invest too much faith in Pakistan's goodwill," said Ruttig.
Pakistan's regional influence could get an additional boost, with the country being talked about as a possible location for a new US military base. "This is being hotly debated in Washington," said Andrew Watkins, an Afghanistan analyst from the International Crisis Group.
"What we're talking about is the deployment of air assets and not sizable ground forces — about maintaining the ability to conduct a drone war or even deploy standard Air Force assets. Because that is highly controversial in domestic politics in Pakistan, it will be something that they do in relative secret and that most of us will only learn about years after the fact," he said.
While the Pakistani government has publicly denied any intention of giving US forces access to its military facilities, the Taliban came out at the end of May with a preventive statement urging Afghanistan's neighbors not to host US bases.
China: Security 'free rider'?
For its part, Beijing views the US withdrawal from Afghanistan with very mixed feelings. Gu
Xuewu, director of the Center for Global Studies in Bonn, Germany, said that on the one hand, China welcomes the decision to pull back forces from its immediate neighborhood. At the same time, however, China has profited from US efforts over the last two decades to contain the influence of the militant Islamist Taliban.
"The main fear is Xinjiang. As far as I can see, for Beijing everything else is secondary," said Gu. Xinjiang is a northwestern region of China, inhabited by the Muslim Uyghur people, which borders Afghanistan.
Islamist Uyghur groups, also operating in Afghanistan, are viewed as a serious concern in China — above all since the socalled "Islamic State" (IS) has been active in the Hindu Kush, said Angela Stanzel of the Berlin think tank German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP).
"IS has directly threatened China with retaliation for the persecution of the Muslim minority in China itself," she said. "Which again exacerbates Beijing's anxiety about a power vacuum in Afghanistan that could give IS the territory it needs to spread its presence in China and above all across central Asia."
In the past, China was often described as a "free rider" in Afghanistan. Beijing, it was suggested, was allowing NATO forces to be responsible for the security of its economic interests. This initially included, for example, plans for investment in the exploitation of the raw materials that bitterly poor Afghanistan has at its disposal in large quantities that, however, simply go unused.
Nevertheless, Stanzel said there is no reason to believe that Beijing will step in and guarantee security in the region after the US withdrawal.
Mixed reaction in Tehran
In Tehran, the response to the American withdrawal from the Hindu Kush has been ambivalent. The undoubted foreign policy priority for Iran is the conflict with the United States, and in western Afghanistan US forces and their bases had been shifted close to the Iranian border.
"Iran wants to see the United States fail in any of its regional endeavors," said Crisis Group expert Watkins. "And Iran wants to see the US withdraw from the region because it also views the US presence in Afghanistan as an encroachment. But what they don't want is to see the potential for total collapse or for a humanitarian disaster."
In recent decades, millions of Afghans have sought refuge in Iran as well as in Pakistan.
"Tehran actually appreciated the stabilizing impact of Western forces — even if it is something that the Iranian authorities would never have admitted to," said Ruttig of the Afghan Analysts Network.
This may also be applicable to Moscow. In the Russian imagination, Afghanistan has since the 19th century been seen as a southern strategic flank, as a gateway to the Indian Ocean, as a backdrop for rivalries with the West — or all of this together.
For a long time, following the withdrawal of Russian troops from Afghanistan in 1989, Moscow kept its distance from the region. In the meantime, however, Russia has again established relations with a number of players in Afghanistan, including the Taliban.
Moscow's interests are focused on security across its southern flank, measures to prevent a resurgence of Islamic movements and participation in any attempt to reach a political solution to the conflict.
for Afghanistan's
Hope future?
There will be no resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan unless it has the backing of the nations of the region. But, according to Watkins, each country "could put a finger on the scale and throw the entire situation in Afghanistan out of balance."
But Delhi and Islamabad do have one shared interest: both are looking to secure access to the vast energy resources of Central Asia. Since the 1990s, there have been negotiations concerning a possible pipeline project to bring gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan and Pakistan and all the way to India. The acronym for the project is TAPI, after the names of the four nations involved.
A visit by a Taliban delegation to Turkmenistan at the beginning of February was interpreted as a sign that the pipeline project is still viable. The Taliban reiterated their support for the pipeline and promised to guarantee its security.
"For Afghanistan and all the other participants, one can only hope that this project will be realized — in a peaceful environment," said Ruttig. "It is the only realistic large-scale economic project that they have got."
the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told DW. "There are serious cases of human trafficking that do take place in
Egypt, and this is not it."
executive director of the British Chambers of Commerce, said in a press statement. "But they still don't have the full picture they desperately need to properly plan for unlocking."
The Federation of Small Businesses has expressed similar sentiments.
After earlier bullishness, the government itself has started to emphasize caution. When "freedom day" was originally trumpeted in early summer, the UK's rapid rate of vaccination combined positively with low case and death rates to foster a strong sense of optimism.
However, the delta variant's spread has seen daily case rates shoot up past 30,000 in recent weeks. The newly appointed UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid conceded when confirming the July 19 plans that daily case rates could soon hit the 100,000 mark.
The government insists the vaccination program has broken the link between case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths. Yet the uncertainty has helped tone down government rhetoric, including from Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The phrase "freedom day" has been semiretired, amid a tacit acceptance that restrictions could return if the situation spirals out of control.
Also, many people who have been working from home will continue to do so long after July 19. "While the government is no longer instructing people to work from home if they can, we expect and recommend a gradual return to the workplace over the summer," a government spokesman said.
An economic bounce
Nonetheless, economists do see a bright side, with many predicting the reopening will add momentum to an already strong recovery.
"We expect the reopening to provide further momentum to the recovery via two channels," Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist with Oxford Economics, told DW. "First, the reopening of settings, which are still closed, such as nightclubs and large events. And second, due to the removal of social distancing restrictions, which were forcing many hospitality venues to operate below full capacity. Overall, we're expecting GDP growth of 7.3% this year."
However, he also sees a major economic risk if the public health situation escalates again. "We know from last year that high numbers of COVID cases can damage consumer confidence and discourage social consumption," he said. "And second, the higher case numbers rise, the greater the pressure on the NHS [National Health Service] and the more likely it becomes that restrictions need to be reimposed."
New normal
While July 19 will be the closest the UK economy has been to normal since March 2020, it is still markedly different from what it was when the pandemic first struck.
The virus has left deep scars. At least 129,000 people in the UK have died. Many city centers remain unusually quiet amid the major shift to remote working.
It is expected that the UK Treasury will have pumped just under half a trillion euros of pandemic-related expenditure into the economy by 2022. Not since the 1970s has the economy been so directed by government.
On top of that, the UK has fully exited the EU single market and customs union since the pandemic began, with the postBrexit transition period ending on December 31, 2020. The economic consequences of that are only beginning, according to Goodwin, and any post-pandemic bounce is unlikely to have much impact on the overall Brexit effect.
"We see COVID and Brexit as operating over different time periods," he said. "The main impact of the pandemic is likely to be in the short term, but the damage to UK growth prospects from Brexit is likely to play out over a prolonged period, in the form of lower FDI [foreign direct investment], firms building European hubs in the EU rather than the UK, and population growth being weaker due to lower immigration." For now, it's sovereignty from the virus, rather than the EU, that many in Britain hope to celebrate.