Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Bill 11456 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Free Legal Aid’ Regarding Expanding the List of Persons Entitled to Free Secondary Legal Aid” which supplements the list of subjects entitled to free secondary legal aid by persons who have suffered from criminal offenses based on hatred on grounds of race, skin color, political, religious, and other beliefs, gender, disability, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, language. However, the list of protected characteristics does not include sexual orientation and gender identity despite the fact that both independent observers and the National Police report every year on the presence and prevalence of such crimes in Ukraine — accordingly, their victims should have the same right to legal aid as victims of hate crimes on other grounds.

For the third year in a row, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, commissioned by Nash Svit Center, conducts a survey on the attitude of Ukrainian society to LGBTQ issues, and this year’s results again demonstrate that it is slowly but consistently improving.

On February 13, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine hosted a round table “Harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with European standards in the field of combating discrimination and ensuring diversity” which was actually dedicated to one topic: overcoming homo/transphobia and its consequences on the path of Ukraine’s integration into the EU and all modern free world.

Eurobarometer is a regular sociological survey of European Union citizens’ opinion conducted once every four years by the European Commission. According to the latest survey (2023), full legal equality in all areas of life for LGBTQ people is currently supported by a total of 69%, and recognition of same-sex marriage by 72% of EU residents.

The offenders were sentenced to imprisonment for 2 years under Part 2 of Art. 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hooliganism committed by a group of persons) with exemption from serving the sentence with a probationary period of 1 year and taking into account the circumstance that aggravates the punishment in accordance with Art. 67 of the CCU. Also, the court partially satisfied the victim’s civil claim and awarded him moral damages in the amount of UAH 60,000.