LIVES ON THE FRONTLINE

“I have been depicted in Russian media as an extremist”
— Denys

Denys: I have never had a normal life. In this country I have lived through a revolution, an occupation, a crisis in the 90s and, as an LGBTQI, we receive a lot of discrimination. I am so tired. I want to stay alive. Russian bombs and aeroplanes with rockets destroyed my flat, my parents’ apartment. Everything I own, my car — even my two cats — is gone. In the first days of the war, I did not know if my mother was still alive — she was in Kharkiv and I was in Lviv for work.

Eleven years ago, Dima and I met in Kharkiv, where we both grew up. For the first part of our relationship, we couldn’t see each other at home because we were still living with our parents. We would meet in parks or in clubs.

After four years, we were able to live together in an apartment in Kharkiv that I inherited from my grandparents. The building is home to a lot of old people. Even though we never talk to them about us being gay, I have the feeling they somehow know. I never came out to my mother, even though she knows and understands it. Dima’s parents don’t know he is gay. He doesn’t want to publish pictures of us on Instagram, in case his family see them.

From February onwards, I stayed in Lviv because of the war, and Dima followed me there. We are now staying in the restaurant where I work, and have invited other