The systemic violence that attempts to strip transgender people’s right to self-determination seems to be translating into assault and life-threatening consequences for women at Ukraine’s border.

Up until 2017, trans folks in Ukraine were required under Order No. 60, of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, to undergo “extensive psychiatric observation and irreversible sterilization, to obtain a divorce, and submit to gender reassignment surgery: all just to get their documents aligned with their gender,” according to Human Rights Watch.

While some of these invasive requirements were supposedly cut down, trans folks were still required to “undergo outpatient psychiatric examinations that could easily transition to inpatient hospitalization” to access their identity documents, HRW reports.

This medicalization of transness, which reduces everyone to their bodies through the lens of sensationalized controversy, is now being enforced at Ukraine’s borders.

The country’s marital law, which bans adult men from leaving the country, is being imposed by border guards onto women who are trans, increasingly putting their lives at risk as Russia’s invasion into Ukraine escalates.

Soon after Judis fled from Svatove to Kyiv, her grandmother’s home was destroyed by a missile. Judis had no money, lived in a basement near the outskirts of the capital, which was about 150 meters away from being struck by a rocket, Guardian reports.

On reaching the border to Poland, Judis was prevented from accessing safety by border guards who told her to “Go to war” after a dehumanizing interaction.

“I want to be free to do what I want in life,” Judis told Guradian. “I will try again to cross the border because it’s my right to leave and to live. And I will not remain silent. I will not be held prisoner.”

Similar experiences have been recounted by other women, who are being prevented from accessing safety because of the border guards' transphobia.

With Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, the unfolding human rights catastrophe holds exacerbated life-threatening risks for LGBTQI+ people, as detailed in a US letter to the UN, which suggested a “Kill List” that includes LGBTQI+ folks.