Zelensky Says Ukraine’s Government May Allow Civil Partnerships for Same-sex Couples.

THE NEW YORK TIMES: President Volodymyr Zelensky, responding on Tuesday to a citizen petition that called for the legalization of same-sex marriage in Ukraine, raised the prospect of “civil partnerships,” but said the Constitution’s definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman could not be changed during wartime.

A Pride parade in Kyiv, Ukraine, last year. The war has spurred efforts to secure equal rights for L.G.B.T.Q. Ukrainians, including the right to marry. | Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press
Mr. Zelensky was responding after the petition garnered support from more than 25,000 Ukrainians. Ukraine does not recognize marriage rights for same-sex couples, nor does it have a statute allowing them to enter into civil unions. Calls to grant those couples equal rights have grown in part because of the sacrifices of L.G.B.T.Q. soldiers helping the country fight Russia’s brutal invasion.

Under Ukrainian Ministry of Defense regulations, the military must inform the parents and spouse or other close relatives of a soldier who is killed. But those rules do not apply to same-sex couples who are unable to legally wed.

In Ukraine, same-sex couples do not have the automatic right to visit a hospitalized partner, to share property ownership, to care for a deceased partner’s children, to claim the body of a partner killed in war or to collect death benefits from the state. The petition urging Mr. Zelensky to support marriage rights for same-sex couples was initiated by Anastasia Sovenko, 24, an English teacher from Zaporizhzhia, in southern Ukraine, who identifies as bisexual. » | Michael Levenson | Tuesday, August 2, 2022