KHARKIV (UKRAINE) - A black bulletproof vest bearing a Ukrainian military crest, a tourniquet and two felt-tip pens make up street artist Gamlet Zinkivsky's unpretentious work equipment.
With his war against Ukraine, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is also waging a campaign against LGBTQ people. For him, they represent dangerous pseudo-values of the West. Despite the threat, many of them remain in Ukraine, and are fighting back.
Having decided first to recognize the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and then mount a special operation to reverse the pro-Western Maidan revolution of 2014, Russia's leadership realized that there would be consequences to these actions. As the West made it clear from the outset that its response would take the form of imposing severe sanctions rather than a military, the issue of the economic damage that Russia would sustain naturally surfaced.