A court in Kharkiv refused to recognize a same-sex union as a family

The Industrial District Court of Kharkiv ruled to reject the claim of two men who demanded to legally recognize the fact of their living as one family. The court concluded that there were insufficient grounds to formalize such a union under the current legislation.

According to the website of the public organization “All Together!”, the plaintiffs in the case were local residents Dzmitry Lyaskovetski and Yevgeni Donets. During the proceedings, held on March 20, 2026, Judge Viktor Chernyak considered expert explanations from the public organization “All Together!”. In the provided documents, the activists pointed to the norms of the Constitution and the Family Code of Ukraine, which directly exclude the possibility of recognizing family status for the union of two persons of the same sex.

Representatives of the public regarded these demands as an attempt to destructively influence the traditional institution of marriage. It is reported that the court hearing was accompanied by protests. At the end of the trial, the applicants expressed their intention to consider filing an appeal after familiarizing themselves with the full text of the verdict. According to the law, they have 30 days to appeal the decision of the first instance.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that the Supreme Court of Ukraine made a scandalous decision, recognizing for the first time the fact of actual marital relations between two men – the first secretary of the Ukrainian embassy in Israel, Zoryan Kisym, and social activist Timur Levchuk.