Military service
Outbreak of the war (2014–2022)
In 2014, Pylypenko was working and living in the United Arab Emirates. [4] 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. [4] Following the Revolution of Dignity, Pylypenko became a member of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, serving in the front, including in the 2014 Battle of Ilovaisk. [4]
He later served with the Donbas Battalion as a grenade launcher, a rifleman, and a paramedic. [1] Pylypenko continued his service in Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts until May 2016, taking part in the Shyrokyne standoff and the Battle of Mariupol, [4] for which he was awarded with the ATO badge and the presidential recognition for the defense of Ukraine. [5] [6]
In 2018, Pylypenko came out as a gay man. [4] [7] 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, [8] in 2019, joined the Kyiv Pride with a column of LGBTQ+ members of the armed forces. [9] [1] That same year, he founded an NGO for sexual minorities in the military, receiving support from the Democracy Promotion Foundation of the U.S. embassy in Kyiv. [10] [11] Other of Pylypenko's activism related to LGBTQ+ issues included events in support of the legalization of civil partnerships and anti-discrimination laws. [12]
Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present)
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pylypenko returned to military service, again fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk, and in Kharkiv Oblast too. [13] In July 2022, he was promoted to junior sergeant and was awarded with the medal "For the Military Service to Ukraine" and "For Exemplary Military Service" in the third degree. [14]
He has been credited with saving several wounded soldiers while serving as a paramedic in the Kharkiv front. [15]
Incidents regarding his sexual orientation
Pylypenko has been the target of several assaults on account of his sexual orientation. [1]
In a 2019 march to honor fallen service members during the war, he was assaulted by a veteran and Orthodox priest. [16] The beating was condemned by the United Nations Human Rights Office. [17] 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. [18]
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. [19] [20]
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. [21] 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. [22]
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. [23] [24]
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. [25] 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." [26] In an act of solidarity, the rest of the recipients turned down the Patriarch's recognition. [26] [27]
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. [12] [28]
In August 2025, during the funeral of David Chichkan, Pylypenko was physically assaulted by Denis Kapustin, a notorious homophobe and commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, who took offense at Pylypenko displaying a rainbow flag at the ceremony. [29] [30] [31]
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. [4] In an interview for QUA – LGBTQ Ukrainians in America, which helps Ukrainian refugees and expatriates in the United States, Pylypenko said that he hoped to see the things that he saw in the U.S. happen in Ukraine, referring to LGBTQ+ events he saw while visiting a gay friend in Chicago. [4]
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. [15]
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Junior sergeant 
ATO Badge