Gli occupanti tortura ed eseguono persone LGBT in Crimea: tuttavia la giustizia è impossibile mentre la guerra della Russia dura

In occupied Crimea, transgender people and members of the LGBT community face systemic persecution and violence.

Crimean native and transgender woman Liliia Khvylka was forced to flee the peninsula in 2022:

“When I was leaving Crimea, I was already under house arrest, with an electronic ankle bracelet”

Liliia cut off the bracelet herself. She had to leave through the territory of Russia and Belarus, carrying only a Ukrainian birth certificate. Volunteers she found online helped her.

Liliia is a transgender woman from Kerch. In Crimea, she was forced to hide her identity. There, she was known as Illia Hantsevskyi.

Back in 2014, when she was 18, Liliia took part in the Revolution of Dignity. She remembers the first days of the Russian occupation.

“When Russian authorities came, freedom of speech disappeared completely. Ukrainian activists and journalists immediately started leaving or going missing,” Khvylka says.

“They opened a case against me under Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code – ‘discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.’ This is considered a very serious crime, linked to terrorism.”

Liliia did not wait for the verdict. She fled Crimea, as persecution of LGBT people on the peninsula was becoming increasingly harsh.

**Russia escalates persecution**

In 2023, the Russian Supreme Court declared the LGBT community an “extremist organization,” reminds Iryna Yuzyk, manager at the ZMINA Human Rights Center.

Human rights lawyer Karolina Palaichuk adds that torture, humiliation, and sexual violence against LGBT people have been documented in occupied territories.

Documented testimonies from Kherson region confirm these abuses.

One witness, Oleksii, said he was stopped at a checkpoint, his phone searched, and after finding certain content, soldiers threw him into a basement.

“They beat him, forced him to wear a red dress, took him to interrogations dressed like that, stripped him, mocked him. He was lucky to survive,” Yuzyk states.

Another case was Diana, a 24-year-old lesbian who worked as a shop assistant. Her colorful hair drew attention. Soldiers raided her home, found a rainbow flag, and threw her into a basement with 15 others.

**“Later, they lined them up and randomly executed some. Only four survived,” Yuzyk says.**

[https://suspilne.media/crimea/1112002-a-zrizala-braslet-i-vtekla-istoria-lilii-hvilki-pro-peresliduvanna-lgbt-v-krimu/](https://suspilne.media/crimea/1112002-a-zrizala-braslet-i-vtekla-istoria-lilii-hvilki-pro-peresliduvanna-lgbt-v-krimu/)