State Dept: Russia Has ‘Kill Lists’ That May Include LGBTQ+ Ukrainians

The U.S. State Department has sent a letter to the United Nations claiming that Russian authorities have come up with "kill lists" of Ukrainians to be killed or detained during an invasion of the country.

U.S. has intelligence that suggests "there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies," White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on the NBC's Today show Monday morning.

"It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people to repress them, to crush them, to harm them. And that is what we laid out in detail for the U.N.," he said.

The list reportedly contains the names of people whom Russian authorities would order to be killed or sent to camps, NPR reports.

Russia is notorious for its persecution of LGBTQ+ people. Russia infamously adopted a "gay propaganda" law in 2013, banning any mention of LGBTQ+ issues in venues accessible to minors. In recent years, Chechnya, a semi-autonomous region of Russia, has systematically persecuted LGBTQ+ people, especially gay men, jailing and torturing them, and outing them to intolerant family members, which puts them at risk of further violence. Some have been killed, and others have fled abroad.

Bathsheba Nell Crocker, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. office in Geneva, warned in the letter to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights that "abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned."

"I would like to bring to your attention disturbing information recently obtained by the United States that indicates that human rights violations and abuses in the aftermath of a further invasion are being planned," Crocker wrote. "These acts, which in past Russian operations have included targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture, would likely target those who oppose Russian actions, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents in exile in Ukraine, journalists and anti-corruption activists, and vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons."