In 2023 the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ranked Ukraine 39th out of 49 European countries in terms of LGBTQ rights legislation, similarly to EU members Lithuania and Romania.

In late 2022, parliament unanimously approved a media regulation bill that banned hate speech and incitement based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

[4] While in the countries of Western Europe homosexuality was punishable by death via burning, the legislatures of the Kievan Rus and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was much softer; there is no known individual case of execution for one's sexuality.

[5][6][7] The Zaporozhian Sich considered homosexuality unchristian and demonic; Cossacks caught in contact with people of the same sex were trampled into the ground by horses.

(секеляння, sekelyannya)[9] After the February Revolution and the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) gaining autonomy in 1917 and declaring independence in 1918, all laws of the Russian Empire were repealed, including the article punishing homosexuality.

[24] On 23 November 2015, the Government approved an action plan to implement the National Strategy on human rights in the period up to 2020, which include the promise to draft a bill creating registered civil partnerships for opposite-sex and same-sex couples by 2017, among others.

[28] In the modern world, the level of democracy of society is measured in including through the state policy aimed at ensuring equal rights for all citizens.

At the same time, the Government has been developing options for the legalization of registered civil partnership in Ukraine as part of the work on assertion and ensuring human rights and freedoms.

[39][nb 1] The Criminal Code of Ukraine contains a number of articles that provide for harsher penalties for crimes committed on the grounds of racial, national, or religious intolerance.

However, if a crime stems from intolerance towards an individual’s or group’s sexual orientation or gender identity, existing legislation does not stipulate heightened punishment, thus failing to classify it as a “hate crime.”[42] In April 2020, a parliamentary draft aimed at amending the Ukrainian Criminal Code to address hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity was introduced.

[49] In December 2022, the Ukrainian Parliament unanimously passed a bill that banned hate speech and discrimination against LGBTQ people in mass media.

[77] Many LGBTQ people in Ukraine reported feeling the need to lie about their true sexual orientation or gender identity in order to avoid being a target for discrimination or violent harassment.

[83] In 1999, the former President of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, stated that there are more important issues than LGBTQ rights to discuss in Parliament and that homosexuality is caused by a mental illness or the corrupting influence of foreign films.

[86][73][87][88][78][89] This law was deemed homophobic by the LGBTQ community and human rights organisations and condemned by Amnesty International, the European Union, and the United Nations.

[95] In May 2008, Ukrainian LGBTQ groups were prevented from marking the International Day Against Homophobia after a last-minute intervention by authorities who told organisers that due to the likelihood of friction the events would have to be canceled.

On 7 July 2014, Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko had asked to cancel the pride, "I think that currently, when battle actions take place and many people die, holding entertainment events does not match the situation existing.

[108][111] Members of Parliament Svitlana Zalishchuk and Serhiy Leshchenko attended the march along with the Swedish Ambassador to Ukraine, Andreas von Beckerath, and other foreign diplomats.

[117] On 18 June 2017, Kyiv's fourth pride parade, again dubbed Equality March, was held in the city without major incidents with 6 people detained for trying to breach the security cordon.

[124] After the march ended, far-right counter demonstrators gathered in Shevchenko park hoping to attack LGBTQ activists attempting to leave on foot.

[129] On 29 August 2021 violent clashes broke out between police and the far-right nationalist group Tradition and Order during an LGBTQ Equality March in Odesa.

[136] An Amnesty International expert on Ukraine stated in 2013 that "people have been beaten and in one case murdered because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

[144] Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have complained about an increase of attacks in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic in Eastern Ukraine.

[104] In July 2015, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, said he respected Ukraine's far-right party Right Sector "when they beat up the gays in Kyiv and when they tried to depose Poroshenko".

Notably, more people viewed this as never acceptable than adultery (61.5% never, 29.3% sometimes), traffic rule violation (70.2% never, 25.6% sometimes), pollution (73.3% never, 22.4% sometimes), tax evasion (48.5% never, 37.5% sometimes), deception for the sake of profit (48.3% never, 41.6% sometimes), as well as a list of other things including abortion, premarital sex, complaining to authorities about a friend who has stolen something, etc.

[154] In May 2016 in a survey by Nash Svit Center, conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, only 3,3% of respondents claimed to be positive about LGBT people in general, while 60,4% were negative and 30,7% were indifferent.

[155] On 25 September 2016, European scientific studies detected that Ukrainians displayed higher levels of homophobia than Albanians and Italians, confirming the central role of cultural differences in homophobic attitudes.

[158] In May 2022 in a survey by Nash Svit Center, also conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 12.8% of respondents claimed to be positive about LGBT people in general, while 38.2% were negative and 44.8% indifferent.

Nash Svit Center believes that acceptance of LGBT people in Ukraine has "Dramatically improved" compared to results from their similar survey from 2016.

[160] The role of LGBT community members in the Ukrainian military following the 2022 Russian invasion has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in Ukraine.

[161] In a June 2024 survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology when asked if LGBTQ people should have the same civil liberties and constitutional rights as all Ukrainians 70% of respondents said "yes.