Foreign Ministry denies diplomat’s gay partner family-member status

Kis and Levchuk. Photo: SOTA

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry refused to grant “family member” status to the gay partner of Zorian Kis, First Secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel, for travel abroad. This was reported by the “All Together!” movement, citing a response to the organization’s lawyer’s request.

Kis had asked to take Ukrainian citizen Tymur Levchuk with him on a long-term posting as a “family member,” referring to a June 10, 2025 ruling by Kyiv’s Desnianskyi District Court. That ruling established the fact of “de facto marital relations” between the two men.

The Foreign Ministry replied that it had considered the request under the current legislation on diplomatic service. Its official response states that Article 2 of Ukraine’s Law “On Diplomatic Service” allows only a family member to accompany a diplomat on assignment, including “the other spouse.” The ministry clarified: “The term ‘spouses’ means a registered marriage between a woman and a man.” It also stressed that “even the established fact of a same-sex couple living together as one family does not give rise to the rights and obligations of spouses.”

As the UOJ reported, a Kyiv court ruled that the relationship between two men may be considered a family. Kis used that very court ruling as the legal basis for his request to the ministry. In March 2026, Ukraine’s Supreme Court left the district court’s ruling in force, dismissing the complaint filed by the “All Together!” movement on procedural grounds.

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