Ukrainian lawmaker Inna Sovsun, who is member of the Holos political faction in Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament), announced on March 7 that she had submitted a draft law on the registration of same-sex couples, said to be read in parliament in the next five days, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Neither same-sex marriages nor civil partnerships are currently recognized by Ukrainian law. However, given the number of soldiers identifying as part of the LGBT community that are fighting in the war, many lawmakers are recognizing the importance of granting legal rights to such couples.
In her announcement, Sovsun reportedly shared the testimonies of several couples who worry that they will not have the ability to visit their partners in the hospital if they are injured in the battlefield or to bury them if they are killed.
"I am convinced that as a society, we have to correct a great injustice where some citizens have fewer rights than all others," Sovsun was cited as saying.
The Kyiv Independent says that according to Sovsun, 56% of Ukrainians agree that LGBT couples should have the right to civil partnerships. She added that homophobia in Ukrainian society was a remnant of Russian and Soviet influence that needed to be discarded.
If the draft law is supported by the Verkhovna Rada, the same-sex couples will have mutual rights and obligations as heterosexual couples when it comes to property ownership, inheritance, social protection, and rights in case of the death or disappearance of a partner serving in the armed forces.
Inna Sovsun is a Ukrainian professor and politician. She served as Ukraine's deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine from 2014 to 2016. She is currently a Ukrainian MP, member of the Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities Services of the Verkhovna Rada, since May 2020.
Holos, translated as Voice or Vote, is a liberal and pro-European political party in Ukraine. The party won 20 MPs in the 2019 parliamentary election and became part of the opposition in the current Ukrainian parliament. The party split late July 2021 and seven MPs were expelled from the party. As of September 2021, only nine of the party's 20 seats in the Verkhovna Rada are held by MPs who are loyal to the party; the remaining 11 are held by MPs who have formed a breakaway group called Justice.
The party declares a democratic approach, supporting the separation of money from politics. In economic matters, the party is in favor of introducing a tax on withdrawn capital, a land market, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and the fight against illegal customs and tax schemes.
