As Ukraine contends with a battle raging on its jap entrance and Russian assaults on its cities, one lawmaker is engaged on one thing that he says may assist the nation: legalizing pornography.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s finance committee, is main a push to ditch what he sees as outdated Soviet-era laws that bans the possession, manufacturing and distribution of pornography.
Doing so, he mentioned, would treatment what he and other people making pornographic content material say is an unfair contradiction.
Violations of Ukraine’s legal guidelines on pornography — Article 301 of the felony code — are punishable by three to 5 years in jail. However Ukraine’s monetary authorities have been gathering taxes from creators on web sites identified for grownup content material like OnlyFans.
That signifies that individuals who pay taxes on the pornography they produce will be prosecuted for it. “It’s absurd,” Mr. Zhelezniak mentioned, particularly “within the midst of a full-scale battle.”
He additionally sees one other profit for Ukraine in altering the legislation. It could improve tax income, he mentioned, since extra pornography creators can be keen to declare their earnings — a lift for an economic system struggling underneath the calls for of a battle that has floor on for over three years.
“We’d like these funds for our navy,” he mentioned.
Pornography creators say it’s only honest that their work be decriminalized provided that they’re being requested to contribute to the tax rolls.
“Excuse me? Your ‘morals’ permit you to take our tax cash?” mentioned Karina, 30, who has been making sexually specific content material for 5 years. However “your morals permit you to imprison individuals for promoting footage of their very own our bodies?” She added in exasperation: “I’ve no phrases.”
Karina and different creators promoting erotic photos on OnlyFans who had been interviewed for this text requested to be recognized solely by their first names, for worry of arrest.
Ukraine’s Article 301 is stricter than the pornography legal guidelines in most other European countries, america and Russia, and even prohibits sending or receiving nude images between two consenting adults. Efforts to amend it have been within the works for years.
Mr. Zhelezniak spent greater than a yr drafting and gathering help for the invoice to decriminalize pornography, an effort that assumed larger urgency within the fall of 2024.
That’s when the pinnacle of Parliament’s finance committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, mentioned tax authorities had discovered that Ukrainians on OnlyFans had been making “important” earnings — $4 million in a single case, $3 million in one other. These performers should pay taxes, he mentioned.
Mr. Zhelezniak registered a draft law in November. It drew little consideration till December, when Mr. Hetmantsev announced that 350 OnlyFans fashions had filed declarations to collectively pay round $1.6 million in taxes.
“This is essential cash for the nation within the battle and we’re grateful to the women for his or her accountable place and contribution to the victory,” he wrote on Telegram. Mr. Hetmantsev mentioned he supported the draft legislation as a result of “the competition of hypocrisy, when society ‘morally condemns’ with one hand and takes cash for the military with the opposite,” should finish.
The invoice — co-signed by 26 different lawmakers, together with many from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s social gathering — has already been endorsed by Parliament’s Legislation Enforcement committee. It now awaits a vote in Parliament, and Mr. Zhelezniak informed a current occasion that he has secured 210 out of the required 226 votes to move. However not everyone seems to be on board.
Yulia Tymoshenko, an opposition chief, has criticized the appropriateness of the invoice in wartime. “What are you guys doing?” she said in Parliament. “Begin dwelling and dealing for the sake of Ukraine and for the individuals.”
The pinnacle of the Nationwide Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, additionally opposed it, arguing that legalization would “have a detrimental affect on ethical values.”
However Karina insists that her content material is innocent. “I take images of myself and promote them,” she mentioned. “That’s it. I don’t harm anybody.”
Karina mentioned she acquired a letter from the tax authorities in October saying she owed cash on $3.1 million in OnlyFans earnings from 2020 to 2022.
“I didn’t argue — I simply did it,” she mentioned. However even after paying $450,000 in taxes from her financial savings, she added, “I had this nagging feeling that it wasn’t going to finish there.”
Weeks later, her home was raided and her laptop computer seized. Now she is underneath investigation on suspicion of violating Article 301, in accordance with her lawyer.
“I’m utterly disillusioned with my nation,” Karina mentioned. “It’s like we’re nonetheless in the usS.R., the place they pretended intercourse didn’t exist.”
Lesya Mykhailenko, her tax lawyer, mentioned a number of purchasers had moved overseas for worry of jail time.
The brand new legislation wouldn’t alter punishments for prostitution, human trafficking and pictures of kid sexual abuse. However in contrast to these, Ms. Mykhailenko mentioned, her purchasers’ actions are victimless — and contain consent.
“Both declare that this business is immoral and ban it solely, or acknowledge that it’s not and decriminalize it,” she mentioned. “The federal government can’t have it each methods.”
Svitlana, 38, is one other shopper of Ms. Mykhailenko’s and a pal of Karina’s. She began webcam modeling at 19, first with topless video chats. Now she information intercourse movies together with her husband to submit on OnlyFans.
“I’m not ashamed,” she mentioned, adamant that what she does is her alternative alone. She enjoys the work, its versatile schedule and the cash. In an excellent month, Svitlana mentioned, she will be able to make round $100,000. She’s proud to have 630,000 followers on OnlyFans, who pay for content material “they need to see.”
When she acquired a letter from the tax authorities saying she had 15 days to pay tax on about $4 million in OnlyFans earnings, Svitlana mentioned she “fortunately” obliged to help the nation. She has been donating to the navy because the battle started, Svitlana mentioned.
The native tax workplace helped Svitlana file her declaration. And for weeks, every little thing appeared effective. Then Karina known as to say that her home had been raided. “We’re in bother,” she informed her.
Svitlana mentioned she feared her home can be subsequent, so she and her husband deleted movies, eliminated intercourse toys — something to cover their work. “We had been scared,” she mentioned.
A knock on the door lastly got here final month, Svitlana mentioned, together with a warrant saying she too was now underneath investigation on suspicion of violating Article 301.
An estimated 3,500 OnlyFans creators are working in Ukraine, though it’s not clear what number of are making content material that will represent pornography underneath Ukrainian legislation. (A lot, however not all, of the content material on OnlyFans is sexually specific.) On OnlyFans alone, Ukrainians earned $123 million between 2020 and 2022, in accordance with Mr. Zhelezniak, citing data from the State Tax Service.
Decriminalizing pornography may herald round $12.3 million in taxes yearly, according to the Better Regulation Delivery Office, an E.U.-funded assume tank in Ukraine. That might be sufficient to purchase 24,000 FPV drones or help Ukraine’s anti-corruption courtroom for a yr, it mentioned.
As a substitute, prosecutors introduced practically 1,400 circumstances underneath Article 301 to courtroom in 2024 — up from 757 the yr earlier — which the Better Regulation Delivery Office known as an “inappropriate” allocation of assets throughout battle.
It takes time to alter minds, mentioned Mr. Zhelezniak, 35. He recounted breaking out his iPad to offer older colleagues in Parliament who thought pornography appeared solely in magazines a primer on “what porn means on this century.”
Whereas he can see the humor in what he’s doing and can typically joke about it with colleagues, the truth, Mr. Zhelezniak mentioned, “is not any laughing matter.”
Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.
