Oleg was a 26-year-old DJ found stabbed close to 30 times in his apartment in Kharkiv in January, last year. Dima was another 20-something, who was also murdered with around 30 stab wounds in his home in Kiev this year.

Maksym was stabbed multiple times, in Odessa in December. He managed to escape his apartment, but his attacker chased after him and finished the job in the entrance to Maksym’s building.

Alexander is from Kharkiv and was beaten last year by a group of about 10 unknown assailants, including two women, in a courtyard near his work. Sergei was attacked recently by a group of young men as he was sitting on a bench in the evening with his boyfriend in a park in his hometown of Vinnytsia.

All these incidents had one thing in common: their victims were gay men.