A district court in Ukraine has formally recognized a same-sex couple as family, the first legal precedent of its kind in the country, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The plaintiffs in the case were Zoryan Kis, first secretary of Ukraine’s Embassy in Israel, and his longtime partner, Tymur Levchuk. The couple has lived together since 2013 and were married in the U.S. in 2021.
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“Those who attend the march represent the voices of those on the front lines and, sadly, those who are no longer with us.”
Ukraine does not currently recognize same-sex marriages or civil unions.
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In 2024, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry refused to acknowledge Levchuk as Kis’ family member, denying him spousal rights to accompany his husband on his diplomatic posting to Tel Aviv. The couple filed a legal complaint naming the Foreign Ministry as a defendant in September.
The court’s decision cited both the Ukrainian constitution and precedent from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), to which Ukraine is a signatory. ECHR requires member states to ensure legal recognition and protection for same-sex families.
The couple’s shared finances and property, joint travel records, photographs, correspondence, and witness testimony were among the evidence considered by the court establishing a long-term domestic partnership.
“A very big and important step toward marriage equality in Ukraine, and a small victory in our struggle for ‘simple family happiness’ for Ukrainian diplomats,” Kis posted to Facebook after the court rendered its judgment.
“Now we have a court ruling that confirms the feelings Tymur Levchuk and I have for each other,” he said, while thanking the judge in the case.
Public support for LGBTQ+ rights in Ukraine has grown steadily in recent years as the country has drawn closer to Europe, and in particular after Russia’s war on the sovereign nation in 2022.
A 2024 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology revealed that 70% of Ukrainians think LGBTQ+ citizens should enjoy equal rights.
Legal progress on the issue has remained slow, however. Legislation recognizing civil partnerships was introduced in 2023 but hasn’t advanced through the Ukrainian parliament’s Legal Policy Committee.
The proposed bill would legalize civil partnerships for both same-sex and heterosexual couples, providing inheritance, medical, and property rights, but not the full status of marriage.
Kis and Levchuk are longtime civil rights activists in Ukraine. In 2015, the couple filmed a video for Ukrainian online magazine Bird in Flight, reenacting a recent social experiment conducted in Moscow featuring two young men holding hands as they walked through the city to gauge the public’s reaction. The responses in Kyiv mostly ranged from shrugs to bemusement, until Levchuk sat on Kis’ lap.
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