Crimean woman fined for ‘LGBT propaganda' after posting pictures of men in wedding dresses — Novaya Gazeta Europe
According to the court decision, an employee at Russia's Centre for Combating Extremism, a unit known for persecuting opposition activists, found a post in February featuring photographs of men wearing wedding dresses on Irina Khokhlatkina's page on VK. The pictures were captioned: 'Why do I have to ask you out on a date?', 'I was waiting for you to make the first move', 'Let's go halves' and 'Show me that you need me'.
The court ruled that the photos 'depicted men in a way that does not culturally correspond to the image of a man of traditional sexual orientation in Russia' and demonstrated 'traditional female features and characteristics' and fined Khokhlatkina 100,000 rubles (€1,100).
Khokhlatkina appealed the ruling, saying she had merely reposted photographs from an online forum, meaning that the pictures were already available to the public at large.
The second post for which Khokhlatkina was fined featured a video of two naked women kissing on a bed, though the court decision did not go into further detail, according to Verstka.
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However, we need to understand that the battle for the city has left almost no stone standing.' Stupak also believes that once the Russians capture Chasiv Yar, they will most likely move on the Kramatorsk-Slovyansk agglomeration, which includes Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka, stressing that 'the Russians will only have full control of the Donetsk region and the entire Donbas if they capture all these cities'. AFU servicemen near Kupyansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, 5 June 2025. Photo: Anatoliy Stepanov / Sipa / Shutterstock / Rex Features / Vida Press Battles along the entire front line 'One important area is Kupyansk. There the Russians have approached the city from their ever-expanding bridgehead on the banks of the Oskil River in the Kharkiv region they captured earlier,' says Sharp. 'The Russian army is actually approaching the town in small groups. The AFU does not have enough people to ensure effective defence. In some areas, there are only a few Ukrainian soldiers per kilometre. In such cases, the enemy will be able to penetrate deep behind Ukrainian lines and launch a swift attack.' Another danger zone for the AFU, according to Sharp, is the area where the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions meet around the village of Novopavlivka, where the Russians are continuing to advance slowly but steadily. Though the Russians have not yet been able to take Novopavlivka itself, bloody battles are ongoing in the area, with the heavy use of drones and glide bombs reported, Stupak says after confirming that the border between the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions is currently in play. If the Russian army captures Stepnohirsk, its artillery will be able to hit the Ukrainian-held regional capital, Zaporizhzhia. Svitan says the AFU has been successfully displacing Russians from Ukrainian territory in the Sumy region, and that several Ukrainian villages have already been liberated. The 155th and 810th brigades of the Russian Marines and parts of the Airborne Forces fighting in the area have suffered significant losses. Although the Russians have transferred their main units to the Pokrovsk area, they do not have reserves to reinforce them. Fighting has also intensified in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, where Russians are attacking the town of Stepnohirsk and nearby areas, including the village of Kamyanske, according to Stupak. If the Russian army captures Stepnohirsk, its artillery will be able to hit the Ukrainian-held regional capital, Zaporizhzhia. Sharp also has information on Russian attacks on the Zaporizhzhia region, where Russian forces have been able to capture several villages, including Kamyanske. Even a slight advance here could eventually lead to their breaking through Ukrainian defences and serious territorial losses for the AFU, while any further stretching of the line resistance will greatly complicate matters for the Ukrainians and create logistics problems, Sharp notes.
