Without legislative progress, but with growing support: a report on the situation of LGBTQ people in Ukraine in 2025 has been presented

The LGBT Human Rights Nash Svit Center, in partnership with the Human Rights Centre ZMINA, presented a report on the situation of LGBTQ people in Ukraine in January-September 2025.

The event, which highlighted the problems and challenges facing the Ukrainian LGBTQ community during Russian aggression and Ukraine’s integration into the EU, was broadcast online on social media. It brought together experts, human rights defenders, diplomats and representatives of international organisations.

The discussion was moderated by Tetiana Pechonchyk, Head of the Board of the Human Rights Centre ZMINA.

Andrii Kravchuk, an expert of the Human Rights Nash Svit Center, noted that in 2025, there were no significant changes in Ukrainian legislation concerning the protection of LGBTQ rights, despite the fact that the adoption of relevant laws is provided for in the Roadmap for Ukraine’s preparation for accession to the European Union.

According to him, the government is demonstrating its readiness to implement the recommendations of international partners, but parliament remains the main obstacle in this process.

“Unfortunately, there is still no political will in our parliament to adopt appropriate measures. They are only adopted when the Office of the President decides that the process of European integration and aid to Ukraine depends on it”, the expert pointed out. He added that one of the key obstacles is the influence of leading Ukrainian Christian churches, which effectively repeat Russian propaganda narratives on LGBTQ rights issues.

According to Kravchuk, the main source of such dissemination remains the homophobic movement “All Together!”, led by Ruslan Kukharchuk. The national regulator has already fined this organisation’s website twice for spreading hate speech against LGBTQ people. In addition, the movement cooperates with far-right groups that openly declare their neo-Nazi views.

In 2025, Ukrainian courts recognised same-sex partnerships for the first time. Zoryan Kis, First Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in Israel and a well-known former LGBTQ activist, spoke about his own experience of going to court and the legal regulation of such relationships in Israel.

He emphasised that recent rulings of European courts are formulating increasingly clear requirements for states concerning the legal recognition and protection of same-sex couples.

Viktoriia Zakhozha, Deputy Director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology presented the results of a nationwide survey on Ukrainian society’s attitude towards LGBTQ people in 2025, conducted on behalf of the Nash Svit Center.

According to her, between 2022 and 2025 sociologists have recorded a steady increase in the level of support for LGBTQ people and the protection of their rights:

• almost half of the population demonstrates an indifferent attitude towards LGBTQ people;
• the share of positive attitudes increased from 14.2% in 2024 to 18.5% in 2025;
• the proportion of people with negative attitudes remains stable, at around one third of the population;
• 78.1% of respondents believe that LGBT people should have the same rights as other citizens of Ukraine.

The introduction of registered civil partnerships for same-sex couples was supported by 29.8% of respondents; 30.1% expressed indifference, while 35.1% held a negative view. At the same time, the gap between supporters and opponents of civil partnerships narrowed from 18.3 percentage points in 2022 to 5.3 percentage points in 2025. Among younger age groups (18-39), supporters already outnumber opponents.

Oleksandr Zinchenkov, Head of the monitoring network of the Nash Svit Center, reported that in the first nine months of 2025, 44 cases of violations of LGBTQ rights were documented, 21 of which occurred in Kyiv. Among them: 13 cases show signs of hate crimes; nine involved attacks on LGBTQ centres, events, or activists; six involved violations by law enforcement agencies.

“As in the previous year, there remains a significant level of aggression from far-right and conservative groups towards LGBT centres, events or activists, as well as businesses that support the ideas of equality. The organisations KyivPride, KharkivPride and Insight, as well as the capital’s bookshop Sens, which used to hold presentations of publications on queer topics, have found themselves in the crosshairs“, the expert noted.

The online presentation was organised by the LGBT Human Rights Nash Svit Center and the Human Rights Centre ZMINA with the financial support of the European Union and the Council of Europe. The content of this material is the sole responsibility of the authors. The views expressed in this material cannot in any way be considered as the official opinion of the European Union or the Council of Europe.

The full text of the study is available at this link.

The recording of the broadcast is available here.