Zelensky evaluates civil unions for same-sex couples
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Russia accuses the United States of direct involvement in the war
Russia accused the United States of direct involvement in the war in Ukraine as the first ship loaded with grain docked in Turkey. Russia refers to the comments of Vadym Skibitsky, deputy chief of Ukrainian military intelligence, who told the British Telegraph how the launches of the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) were carried out in consultation with Americans, American intelligence in particular, and that Washington has an effective veto on the targets to hit even if it does not provide direct information on the targets. The Russian comments come from the Russian Defense Ministry led by a Putin loyalist.
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Zelensky evaluates civil unions for same-sex couples
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was ready to consider the legalization of “civil unions” between people of the same sex, but not to change the definition of marriage in wartime as a union between a man and a woman as expressed in the Constitution. The New York Times reports it. Zelensky thus responded to the popular petition on same-sex marriages which is receiving widespread support in the country. Ukraine does not currently recognize the right to marry for same-sex couples, nor does it have a statute allowing them to enter into civil unions. Demands to grant these couples equal rights have also increased following the deaths of LGBTQ soldiers in battle to defend the country from Russian invasion. In fact, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has an obligation to inform the parents and spouse or other close relatives of a soldier who is killed. But these rules don’t apply to same-sex couples. In Ukraine, homosexuals do not have the right to visit their hospitalized partner, to share property, to care for the children of a deceased partner, to reclaim the body of a partner killed in the war, or to collect health benefits from the state. death. The petition urging Zelensky to uphold the marriage rights of same-sex couples was initiated by Anastasia Sovenko, 24, an English teacher from Zaporizhzhia who identifies as bisexual.
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Zelensky hears Stoltenberg, focus on POWs
The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the issue of Ukrainian prisoners of war with the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the OSCE and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Zbigniew Rau. This was stated by the leader of Kiev in his usual evening video speech. Ukrinform reports it.