President Petro Poroshenko on the anti-discrimination clauses added to the country’s labor code by the government today:
“Ukraine breaks away from the shackles of discrimination of the Soviet past. And family values are intact,” he tweeted.
Here's some more information from our news desk on the passing of antidiscrimination rules concerning the LGBT community, among others:
Ukraine's parliament has voted for changes to the country's labor code that include protection against discrimination for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
The amendments prohibit any discrimination in the workplace on the basis of "race, color, political, religious and other beliefs, sex gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic, social and foreign origin, age, health, disability, or suspected presence of HIV/AIDS, family and property status, family responsibilities, place of residence, or participation in a strike."
The legislation says: "The idea is that, if a person is working, we cannot discriminate” against them.
RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports that the protections for members of the LGBT community were adopted on a sixth vote, only after Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyrr Groisman announced that lawmakers "stand for family values and will never support gay marriage."
The adoption of the antidiscrimination rules is required by the European Union in a package of so-called "visa-free reforms."
So, it seems the Ukrainian parliament has passed the LGBT antidiscrimination bill after much wrangling:
Video footage that apparently shows a Russian convoy in eastern Ukraine yesterday:
Good morning,
We'll start the Live Blog today with a few of the tweets that caught our eye overnight: