Zelenski asks prime minister to consider legalizing same-sex marriage in Ukraine

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Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski on Wednesday asked the country’s Prime Minister Denis Shmyha to consider the possibility of legalizing same-sex marriage in the country.

Zelenski has thus responded to a petition presented on July 3 and signed by more than 28,000 people. However, he has stressed that, as the country’s Family Code indicates, the “family is the basic primary unit of Ukrainian society”.

“A family consists of people living together, connected by a common life, with mutual rights and obligations. According to the Ukrainian Constitution, marriage is based on the free consent of a man and a woman,” the president said, as stated in a decree published Wednesday.

However, he qualified that in the midst of a state of emergency, declared after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Constitution cannot be subject to reforms, but said that the government will work to find solutions that will allow registering civil unions within the framework of the work launched to ensure the rights and freedoms of the population.

“Article 116 of the Constitution of Ukraine reflects that the Cabinet takes measures to ensure the freedoms and rights of citizens. Taking this into account, I have asked the Prime Minister to consider the submitted petition and report the relevant results,” he said.