LGBTQ Ukrainians take defiant stand while Putin's 'overtly homophobic' regime attacks their country

[Behind the Aegis]

Ukraine earlier this month liberated Kharkiv from Russian occupation, but the city's still frequently hit by Russian bombs.

However, a combination of danger and exhaustion led to an inspiring surprise this past Sunday when rainbows filled a downtown street and flowed down into the Metro through ten stations along three lines.

LGBTQ demonstrators waved rainbow flags, donned shirts, skirts, scarves, wigs, masks, dyed their hair purple, pink, green, gold and blue. Just a few days after Russia's Vladimir Putin mobilized 300,000 more soldiers against Ukraine, the Metro Pride parade blossomed in war-battered Kharkiv.

"Putin doesn't care if all he has left to rule in Kharkiv is rubble but we wanted to show we stand beside our fellow citizens to the end, whatever it will be; our Metro Pride parade was to show all Ukrainians we are with them no matter where the war zone grows," a Kharkiv volunteer medic and emergency responder, nicknamed "Olek," told Raw Story. "We are fighting for their rights and our rights."

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