Zelensky is sent petition asking to legalize same-sex marriages

A petition calling for the legalization of same-sex marriages in Ukraine has gathered more than 25,000 signatures and is now to be reviewed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The petition was registered on the president's website on June 3. The required number of Ukrainians signed it by July 9.

"At this time, every day could be your last," wrote the author of the petition. "Let people of the same sex get the opportunity to start a family and have an official document to prove it. They need the same rights as traditional couples."

Same-sex couples in Ukraine don't have the legal right to marry, cannot jointly own property, inherit the property of a partner or raise children together. In the event of the death of one of the partners, the other will not be able to take care of their minor children, since they aren't a direct relative of the deceased.

The likelihood of Ukraine going forward with the legalization of same-sex marriage has long been one of the main arguments among opponents of the ratification of the Istanbul Convention, although in fact these two aren't directly connected.

Previously, several draft laws on civil partnership had already been prepared, but they were never registered. In November 2020, in Ukraine, a lesbian couple managed to use a mechanism to register a partnership that could be considered an alternative to marriage from a legal point of view.