MOSCOW -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko voiced support for LGBT rights, saying he believes an equality march planned for Saturday in Kiev should take place as planned.
"I will not participate in it, but I don't see any reason to impede this march because it's a constitutional right of every citizen of Ukraine," he said at a press conference on Friday.
No president of Ukraine -- a post-Soviet state of more than 40 million mostly-conservative Orthodox Christians -- has ever voiced support of the country's LGBT community, activists told Mashable. Poroshenko has been mostly silent on the topic of LGBT rights until now.
Taras Karasiichuk, an organizer of the planned equality march, said he was shocked by the president's remarks. "I'm really surprised," he said. "It's huge. And it's important."
Poroshenko's remarks came in response to a question by a journalist who asked whether the president could guarantee the security of those participating in Saturday's march after threats from far-right nationalist groups this week.
'@StankoNastya asked #Poroshenko about his opinion on #KyivPride!— Maksym Filipenko (@maxfdn) June 5, 2015
Activists and diplomats voiced their approval of Poroshenko's remarks and support of the pride event on Twitter, using the hashtag #KyivPride.
I was upset with yesterday's soccer situation, but this news makes me feel hopeful about my country #KyivPride— Karina (@kkarino4ka) June 5, 2015
I strongly welcome statement by @poroshenko that security for Saturday’s Equality March in Kyiv must be ensured.— Geoffrey Pyatt (@GeoffPyatt) June 5, 2015
The president's comments came a day after Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko called on organizers of the equality march to cancel the event due to possible provocations and "bad timing." Klitschko argued that the march risked dividing the war-torn country even further.
Pro-government forces are battling Russian-supported separatists in eastern parts of the country.
But critics responded by saying city officials are merely using the war as an excuse to avoid socially contentious issues, like LGBT rights.
Ukraine's LGBT community has suffered from a wave of homophobia in recent years. In neighboring Russia, laws banning "gay propaganda" have been passed and there have been several cases of gay men being brutally attacked.
Against that backdrop, human rights activists and members of the LGBT community have tried four times to hold an equality march in Kiev. The first and only time they were successful was in May 2013.
Despite the presence of police, participants were assaulted with attackers ripping signs from their hands, spitting on them and shouting hateful slurs. Members of the Orthodox church and a Cossack group gathered nearby, threatening to whip marchers should they cross their path.
The ultranationalist Right Sector group called on Klitschko this week to ban the march planned for Saturday. The group's leader, Dmytro Yarosh, a member of parliament who ran for president last May but finished with a mere 1% of votes, said promoting LGBT values threatens the country's Christian tradition and will only further inflame tensions.
"The Ukrainian public is having the ideology of sexual perversion and the destruction of the family foisted on them," he wrote in a post on Facebook this week. "We have enough issues, however circumstances force us to turn our attention to that evil as well."
Others have also threatened violence against participants, saying "they must be physically destroyed."
Human rights groups have called on Ukraine's interior minister, Arsen Avakov, to ensure police protect the rally from attacks by those groups.
.@MVS_UA please ensure that #KyivPride March goes ahead and that LGBTI activists are protected on the day.— Amnesty UK LGBTI (@AmnestyUK_LGBTI) June 5, 2015
Organizers say the march will take place as planned, despite the threats of violence.
Anna Sharygina, an organizer of the equality march, told Mashable she's preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best.
"We are counting on the police to follow the words of the president," she said.