Ukrainian President asked his government to look into whether same-sex marriages should be legalized but said there would be no move as long as the war with Russia continued.

Kyiv has increased support for LGBTQ+ rights since Western-backed leaders came to power in 2014. Parliament passed legislation in 2015 to ban discrimination in the workplace, but it does not allow for same-sex marriage.

Volodymyr Zelensky - who noted the government was already looking at the legalization of same-sex relationships - was responding to an electronic petition pressing specifically for the legalization of same sex marriages.

“I asked Prime Minister [Denys] Shmyhal to address the issue raised in the electronic petition and to inform me of relevant decisions”, - he said in an official decree.

The President noted the Ukrainian constitution defined marriage as being between a man and a woman and said that during wartime, no changes could be made.