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Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
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19 Sep, 4 tweets, 2 min read
Faces of #KyivPride: meet Viktor Pylypenko, who was among the first Ukrainian war veterans to come out as gay after leaving the military in 2018.A year later, he was beaten up by a former fellow soldier in Kyiv. Viktor fought in the Donbas battalion and has military decorations🧵 Image
To raise awareness about LGBT soldiers and give them voice, Viktor founded an NGO called 'Ukrainian LGBT soldiers for equal rights', that has 120 members now. 'I am here today because I want equal rights, particularly the right to marry and have a family', he told me
He said he knows many soldiers who are being discriminated because of their sexual orientation. 'It all depends on a commander of the unit. If he is tolerant, then there's no discrimination', Viktor said. Acc to him, the attitudes towards LGBT+ people in Ukraine are improving
This is thanks to NGOs raising awareness about LGBT rights, he said, like his one. 'There are a lot of organisations educating people. Our goal is to explain that human rights matter to everyone, not just to LGBT community'/ END Image

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More from @olgatokariuk

Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
22 Aug
Breaking: Germany will be ready to support new sanctions against Russia if it uses the North Stream 2 gas pipeline as 'a weapon', German chancellor Angela Merkel said at the press conference with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi in Kyiv
Merkel also said she talked to Putin about the prolongation of the gas transit deal that would allow to use Ukrainian gas transit system after 2024. She said Germany took Ukraine's security concerns over the North Stream 2 very seriously
At the same time, Merkel tried to distance Germany from the North Stream 2 pipeline, saying that it's not a German-Russian project, but a European one, in which Dutch and French companies participate as well
Read 6 tweets
Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
20 Aug
Went out to see the parade rehearsal in Kyiv, ended up meeting Ukraine's former president Yushchenko. Told him I was an observer in Stanytsia Luhanska during the second round of elections in 2004, which was rigged and sparked the Orange revolution. He said 'thank you' 😍
That was one of the formative moments of my life. Going as an election observer from Yuschenko's team to Stanytsia Luhanska was super scary. Donetsk and Luhansk regions were firmly in Yanukovych's hands and Yuschenko's representatives were not welcome. No one wanted to go there
Me and two of my girl friends were 19 years old and very determined to go to Eastern Ukraine. Our bus was half full. Once in Luhansk, we were paired, a woman and a man for each polling station. We had to ensure there are no voting irregularities and the vote count is transparent
Read 10 tweets
Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
21 Jul
A lot of comparisons to Budapest memorandum in Ukraine as US&Germany prepare to present a #NorthStream2 deal. Back in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange of vague security guarantees by the UK and US. When Russia invaded in 2014, the West said it was non-binding
Ukraine has been resisting Russian aggression for 7 years. 14,000 people died. Now, it feels like the West is letting it down again by rewarding Russia with a pipeline which not only deprives Ukraine of transit fees, but poses a huge security risk. 🇷🇺 will use it as a weapon
After Germany's reluctance to support Ukraine's NATO/EU ambitions and refusal to provide it with defensive weapons, Kyiv understandably doesn't trust any kind of a vague deal. 1 bln$ of promised investments in green energy looks like a joke: yearly losses from transit are 1.4 bln
Read 5 tweets
Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
21 Jul
The US asks Ukraine not to criticize North Stream 2 or risk worsening relations with Washington. That feeling again when Ukraine is being sacrificed by big powers who don't want to spoil their relations with Russia
politico.com/news/2021/07/2…
.@politico reports that the date of Ukraine's presidential Zelenskyi visit to Washington this summer has been established. This visit is very important for Zelenskyi, he's been looking forward to it since 2019. It's a pity though North Stream2 was used as a bargaining chip for it
@politico Derek Chollet, counselor of the U.S. Department of State, who is currently visiting Kyiv and meeting with Ukrainian officials, denied the reports that Washington was applying pressure on Kyiv to avoid criticism of the North Stream 2
radiosvoboda.org/a/news-sholle-…
Read 4 tweets
Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
16 Apr
While politicians and pundits try to understand what Russia's next moves could be and how to prevent it from launching another assault on Ukraine, here's my observations about the mood in Ukraine. After all, people are important actors too (Ukrainians showed it more than once!)
This week, I tried to understand that mood by talking to people and monitoring debates on social media. My conclusion is this: Ukrainians are worried about a possibility of further Russian aggression, but they are not afraid. They are determined to fight back and are preparing
This not only relates to soldiers on the frontline and ex soldiers who have returned to civilian life, launched their business, but are now ready to go back to Donbas to defend Ukraine. People with no military background in the regions talk about forming territorial defense units
Read 16 tweets
Olga Tokariuk Profile picture
15 Apr
‘Russia is openly threatening war and destruction of the Ukrainian statehood. We have two answers to that: one, it will not happen, and two, we are not afraid’, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said at a briefing with foreign ministers of three Baltic countries in Kyiv
Kuleba thanked his Baltic states' counterparts for support and asked them to discuss practical help to Ukraine with other EU/NATO countries, including assistance to boost Ukraine's defense capabilities. ‘We need to make Russia understand that consequences will be painful’,he said
Lithuania’s FM @GLandsbergis called on Russia to return to negotiations in Minsk and Normandy formats and said there will be consequences if ‘red lines are crossed’. The red line for Ukraine would be Russia crossing its border, Ukraine’s foreign minister Kuleba said.
Read 4 tweets

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