Viktor Pylypenko

Viktor Serhiyovych Pylypenko (born 6 November 1986 ), nicknamed the Frenchman, He graduated from a gymnasium in Rivne Oblast and later moved to Kyiv, where he completed a degree in translation studies, specializing in English and French at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. After completing his university studies, Pylypenko worked for the Canadian embassy in Kyiv and various human rights organizations. In 2004–2005, he took part in the Orange Revolution.

Military service Russo-Ukrainian war (2014–2022) In 2014, Pylypenko was working and living in the United Arab Emirates. When the Euromaidan protests began, he refused to continue with his contract in Dubai and returned to Ukraine, joining a paramilitary unit of self-defense organized by Maidan protestors.

In 2018, Pylypenko came out as a gay man. He subsequently engaged in campaigning for LGBTQ+ service members, calling on others to open up and not to hide. Pylypenko also took part in a photographic exhibition about LGBTQ+ Ukrainian military personnel and, in 2019, joined the Kyiv Pride with a column of LGBTQ+ members of the armed forces. Pylypenko's other activism related to LGBTQ+ issues included events in support of the legalization of civil partnerships and anti-discrimination laws.

Russo-Ukrainian war (2022present) Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pylypenko returned to military service, again fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk, and in Kharkiv Oblast too. In July 2022, he was promoted to junior sergeant and was awarded with the Medal For Military Service to Ukraine and Medal For Exemplary Military Service in the third degree.

He has been credited with saving several wounded soldiers while serving as a paramedic in the Kharkiv front.

Pylypenko was the head of the non-governmental organisation "Ukrainian LGBT Military Personnel and Veterans for Equal Rights"; he was later succeeded by Oleksandr Demenko.

Incidents regarding his sexual orientation Pylypenko has been the target of several assaults on account of his sexual orientation. The beating was condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Office. Pylypenko suffered another physical aggression during a TV debate in June 2020, when far-right activist Dmytro Korchynsky violently shouted at him, labelling his homosexuality as "non-traditional" before splashing a glass of water in his face.

In 2021, Pylypenko was the subject of a smear campaign by right-wing groups in Ukraine, who accused him of working with Russians. Conversely, in Russian media, Pylypenko was said to be forming an "LGBTQ+ military unit" within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

In August of that year, an unknown person entered a chat room for Ukrainian gay soldiers and stole videos of explicit sexual content between Pylypenko and another openly gay soldier, Serhiy Afanasyev. The user subsequently posted the videos on Telegram, which resulted in a harassment campaign against Pylypenko and Afanasyev. Both men condemned the leak of the video as a form of revenge porn and said that it was part of their private life that did not harm anyone. They also advocated for the decriminalization of pornographic material within the military, arguing that it helps, while not causing harm to anyone in the ranks.

When singers Serhiy Zhadan and Khrystyna Soloviy released a video in October 2023 featuring women kissing in front of a church in Lviv, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church removed the church's rector. In response to that decision, Pylypenko organized a massive gay kissing event in front of the church to show solidarity with the rector.

In February 2024, Patriarch Filaret Denysenko awarded several units, including Pylypenko's, with the medal for the "Sacrifice and Love for Ukraine", but cancelled the specific one for Pylypenko upon learning that he is a gay man. The church released a statement saying that they thanked Pylypenko's military merits, but that the church did not share his "sinful preferences and LGBT agitation."

In June 2025, Pylypenko faced off with counterprotesters at the Kyiv Pride. He took part in the march to draw attention to the growing losses on the front lines and fallen servicemen whose families remain unrecognized by law.

In August 2025, during the funeral of David Chichkan, Pylypenko was physically assaulted by Denis Kapustin, a neo-Nazi and notorious homophobe who serves as the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps. Kapustin took offense at Pylypenko displaying a rainbow flag at the ceremony.

Personal life Pylypenko said that he wished to have come out earlier, adding that he envies teenagers who realize they are gay at a young age because he had struggled with internalized homophobia.

In July 2024, he said that he never hid his sexual orientation from his comrades, recounting that he used a mobile phone with a rainbow sticker on it. When the other soldiers began asking him whether he was gay, Pylypenko responded positively, and reported in an interview with military newspaper Frontliner Ukraine that he did not face any significant incident of homophobia with his colleagues.