Gay zelensky


Ukraine Distances Itself from Russia in Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality

“The war in Ukraine, it’s not just a war between Russia and Ukraine. It’s a war between totalitarianism and democracy. It’s a war between homophobia and LGBT rights. It’s a war between death and life.” Borys, a twenty-seven-year-old Ukrainian soldier, delivered this stark assessment to Openly News.

Homophobia has remained common in the post-Soviet space. It is a commonplace to utter that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a fight between authoritarianism and the rights of free people to govern themselves. Less well known is the marked divergence in equality for LGBTQ+ persons between countries that once held allegedly similar views. 

In Ukraine, the fact that many LGBTQ+ persons have taken up arms and joined the military and supported the war in other ways is contributing to rapidly changing attitudes.

This stands in marked contrast to the state of affairs in Russia, where the Kremlin focuses precisely on further isolating and attacking LGBTQ+ people in Russia and in the occ

A peculiar row has broken out in Kyiv over the role of one of Zelensky’s best-known advisers. Oleksiy Arestovych is a familiar figure in Ukraine due to his (now-lapsed) perform as a spokesman and developed a profile abroad, described as a ‘sex symbol’ by no less a source than the Economist. But when it comes to sex, he has some clear views. ‘LGBT people are deviant,’ he said on 19 June. ‘I sympathise with them, but I am against propaganda’.

Cue outrage, with KyivPride demanding Zelensky conflagration Arestovych for homophobic statements, ‘Such rhetoric from Ukrainian authorities is unacceptable if we want to be in the EU’. A reference to action that Brussels is taking against Hungary for its stance on LGBT rights. But KyivPride has another argument: that the war has demonstrated that gay Ukrainians deserve equality. ‘You verb no moral right to say that as distant as hundreds of LGBT+ people, along with everyone else, defend Ukraine’, they added.

On his Facebook page, Oleksiy Arestovych answered with a joke, &lsquo

Fact Check: Did Zelensky Attend a Pride Parade in New York?

Fact Check

A photo has been deceptively edited.

A photographcirculating online purports to show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his former adviser Oleksiy Arestovych at a Adj York pride parade. The image has been digitally altered. Neither man appears in the original image. 

The image shows two men heavily made up and in skimpy outfits below a caption that reads “New York ” Arrows point to two men identified as Zelensky and Arestovych, but their faces were digitally superimposed onto the photo. The original image, which was taken at a New York gay pride parade on June 25, , shows neither of the men is the Ukrainian president or his onetime adviser. Otherphotos from the alike collection show the identical men in different poses and locations. 

If you own a claim you would like to see us fact check, please mail us an email at factcheck@ If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@.

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Right-wing pundit Candace Owens has falsely claimed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is a “homosexual actor” and that is why she cannot support a Ukrainian victory over Russia.

Russia occupied and annexed parts of Ukraine in and in launched a full-scale invasion of the country. The war between the two nations is the deadliest fight in Europe since World War II, with reports estimating more than one million people – including troops and civilians on both sides – contain been killed or wounded.

“No amount of media brainwash in the world could ever make me hope that Zelensky triumphs over an orthodox Russia. Spiritually, I just realize that’s wrong. You simply do not support a homosexual actor that is locking up churches and bishops,” she wrote.

Prior to politics, Zelensky was an actor and entertainer who starred in a television show called Servant of the People between and , in which he plays a history instructor who unexpectedly becomes president of Ukraine.

He has never identified as homosexual and is married to scriptwriter Olena Zelenska, with whom he has two