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Together with Swedish partners, NaUKMA received support from the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies

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Published on Wednesday, 16 September 2026 14:56

In 2026-2028, NaUKMA will implement the research project jointly with Södertörn University under the financial support of the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies, dedicated to the civil rights of marginalized minorities among the military in Ukraine.

The project is a 3-year study conducted by a team of international scholars with an aim to investigate under what conditions can marginalized minorities effectively invoke their military service record to gain civil rights.

Soldiering has long been tied to the notion of citizenship because duties and rights are intertwined. Ukraine’s “Rainbow Soldiers” have leaned into this historical link, when demanding civil rights in return for their spilled blood. In this pioneering project, project research team turns to their experience to investigate if the invocation of wartime sacrifice can bring sexual (LGB) and gender (T) minorities closer to first-class citizenship.

To explore the efficacy of this rhetorical strategy, the project will employ a mix of methods:

-         Content analysis of print and digital media to track the claims made and norms invoked;

-         Іnterviews with LGBT activists and state officials;

-         Estimation of the impact of their arguments on public opinion in wartime Ukraine using an original survey experiment.

The project extends the horizon of existing research by delivering a novel account of how LGBT soldiers are “Fighting for Rights” and whether or not their appeals grounded in the “blood debt” have gained traction in Ukraine. Thus, project findings can bring tangible benefits to societies, within Eastern Europe and beyond, where marginalized minorities are campaigning for equal rights.

Project Lead at NaUKMA, Tamara Martsenyuk about the project and its role: "After the Revolution of Dignity of 2013–2014, the LGBT+ movement in Ukraine became more visible, in particular in the fight for their rights in the context of our country’s European integration aspirations. A few years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, in 2018, the LGBT+ military movement was founded, which became an important subject of the fight for rights. Our international project aims to study aspects of the visibility of LGBT+ military personnel, their fight for civil rights, and the attitude of Ukrainian society towards these phenomena."