Oleksandr Zhuhan is on the front lines protecting a country that hasn't always protected him.
 | By Courtney Stein Editor / Senior Audio Producer, Opinion |
In February when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, I started reaching out to people in the L.G.B.T.Q. community there to understand the war from their perspective. The U.S. government had released intelligence reports warning that L.G.B.T.Q. advocates in Ukraine were on a so-called Russian kill list, and in his justification for invading Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said the country had embraced values "contrary to human nature." In Putin's Russia, L.G.B.T.Q. people are routinely targeted — sometimes arrested and tortured. |
One of the people I connected with was Oleksandr Zhuhan, who goes by Sashko. Before the war, Sashko was a drama teacher and his partner, Antonina Romanova, was a director. They both enlisted in the Territorial Defense forces in Kyiv the day after the invasion. |
When Sashko and I started exchanging messages, Kyiv was being shelled, and it seemed like he could be killed at any moment. I got to know him through the voice memos he sent me in between shifts on guard duty. He told me that it had been difficult to decide to enlist, not only because he feared fighting the Russians, but also because he was afraid that his fellow Ukrainian soldiers wouldn't accept him. "Don't ask, don't tell" is the unwritten rule in the Territorial Defense forces, so he and Antonina decided to keep their relationship a secret. He explained that while it's not Russia, being gay in Ukraine has never been easy. Sashko and Antonina were beaten in November in central Kyiv for wearing Pride ribbons, and gay marriage is not legal. |
For Opinion Audio's latest episode of our First Person podcast, we follow Sashko through the many months of this war. He is now fighting on the front-lines in the south of Ukraine, protecting a country that hasn't always protected him. Sashko told me that he'll be fighting until they win or he dies. |
For many of us, Ukraine's fight against Russia's invasion has been a stunning and almost unbelievable display of courage and bravery, and Sashko is a model of those ideals. But his story also offers a window into the battle within the battle. |
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