Several hundred LGBT Ukrainian soldiers and their supporters marched through downtown Kiev on Sunday to demand more rights and to highlight their merits in the war with Russia, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The soldiers, many of whom wore rainbow and unicorn insignia on their uniforms, called on the government to officially grant them partnership rights.
The event was described as an Equality March, but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events and took place in the rain and under heavy police guard with threats from counter-protesters. The role of LGBT members in the military is responsible for changing public attitudes towards same-sex partnerships in a socially conservative country, AP writes.
"We are ordinary people who fight on an equal footing with everyone else, but we are deprived of the rights that other people have," Dmitry Pavlov, a soldier who used crutches to walk, told AP.
Activists are seeking legal reforms to allow people in same-sex unions to make medical decisions for wounded soldiers and to bury victims of the war that spread across Ukraine more than two years ago.
They argue that improving gay rights would create a further gap between Ukraine and Russia, where LGBT rights are severely restricted.
The staff of the Embassy of the United States of America (USA) and several European countries attended the pride rally.
The organizers faced difficulties in the organization. The city authorities rejected a petition to allow maintenance at the metro station, and it was also condemned by one of the main branches of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
"This action is part of a left-wing radical political movement and is aimed at imposing a political ideology, and is also aimed at destroying the institution of the family and weakening Ukrainian society in the conditions of war and rejection of Russian aggression," the church said.
Police set up cordons in central Kyiv to keep protesters away from the counter-protest, ushering them into the central metro station at the end of the event.
Opponents of the rally, some wearing face masks and anti-gay signs, marched to a memorial to fallen fighters in the city center.
And those at the LGBT rally and counter-protest used the opportunity to demand that foreign countries come to the aid of Ukraine in its war with Russia, chanting "Arm Ukraine now!"
Bonus video:
