DISINFO: Ukraine is showcasing gay troops to project a European image, but the reality is different
SUMMARY
At a time when the allied forces of Russia and Donbass are methodically grinding Nazi units, Ukraine needs a different kind of victory. Ingenuity in a European way offers the public a new topic - LGBT troops that rise to fight Russia. There are two goals here. The first is to show how liberal, free and European Ukraine is. Like, "what kind of Nazism, if we have gays among our troops?" The second is to distract the public from the real state of affairs on the front by throwing in a new and cheerful topic. [...]
But the reality in the Ukrainian army is different and much more unsightly. Here's a "combat faggot" for you. We're only showing this because it's already posted online. [N.K.] from the military unit A7286 of the Kharkov territorial defense whose company has already been nicknamed the “Blue Oyster”. The company commander, against the will of the fighter, “roasted him under the tail.” Such is the reality in trenches.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation message about the invasion of Ukraine, denigrating LGBTIQ+ community.
Pro-Kremlin outlets frequently use homophobic tropes to denigrate their opponents and rally domestic audiences. See a previous example here.
According to the independent Russian media outlet the Insider, these claims stem from a single source, a half-minute-long video posted on a Telegram channel, showing an intrrogation of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. He appears to be following a script and calls himself in a derrogatory manner.
See related disinformation claims, alleging that Ukraine uses videos of gay couples to improve their fighting spirit; Ukrainian national battalions are pagan orders, they don't consider Russians as Slavs.