In Russian, pronunciation of Е depends on its placement. If preceded by a consonant, it’s pronounced like a “softer” Э. A bit like “bet” vs “bat” in US English. It’s only pronounced as “ye” if it’s the first letter of the word, or preceded by a vowel, soft sign (Ь) or hard sign (Ъ).

In Ukrainian, Є is similar to Russian Е, but it’s not modified if preceded by a consonant - in these cases it’s typically replaced by i. Ukrainian Е is indeed about the same as Russian Э. And Russian Ё is replaced by combinations ЙО or ЬО.

The Supreme Court declared the “LGBT movement” to be extremist on November 30th last year. Ruling went into power on January 10th. Now it just got added to a list. People have already been arrested because of it before this. It’s not an actual movement, the whole thing is just an excuse for more repressions, of course.