The legislation, co-authored by opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, would overturn a Soviet-era ban that currently makes the production, distribution and possession of pornography a criminal offence.<\/p>\n
A legal paradox<\/p>\n
The push comes amid what lawmakers describe as a contradiction in Ukraine\u2019s existing system.<\/p>\n
While producing or distributing pornography can lead to criminal charges, tax authorities have also been requiring content creators to declare income earned from overseas platforms and pay taxes on it.<\/p>\n
Data from Fenix International, the UK-based parent company of OnlyFans, showed that about 7,900 Ukrainian creators earned more than $131 million through the platform in 2023.<\/p>\n
That has created a difficult situation for creators who want to comply with tax laws while operating in an industry that remains criminalised.<\/p>\n
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“These women either don’t pay taxes and face criminal charges for that, or they pay taxes and get charged with violating pornography laws,” Zhelezniak, a member of the Verkhovna Rada’s finance committee, said.<\/p>\n
The current system has also created opportunities for corruption, with law enforcement officials allegedly using the threat of prosecution to extort money from adult-content creators and webcam studios.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors recently said police departments in three regions had been collecting more than $20,000 a month in alleged protection payments from local studios.<\/p>\n
Could adult content fund drones?<\/p>\n
Supporters of the bill say legalisation would bring an already existing industry into the formal economy while creating an additional source of domestic revenue for Ukraine\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n
Zhelezniak estimates that applying standard business taxes to the sector could generate around $25 million annually.<\/p>\n
That figure is relatively small compared with Ukraine\u2019s overall defence requirements, which run into tens of billions of dollars. But supporters argue that domestic tax revenue has an advantage over foreign assistance: it can be used directly and quickly to meet military needs.<\/p>\n
A significant portion could go towards drones, which have become a crucial part of modern warfare in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The proposed revenue could potentially fund around 30,000 military drones, according to estimates cited by supporters of the legislation.<\/p>\n
The campaign for decriminalisation has also gained support from adult-content creators.<\/p>\n
Svitlana Dvornikova, a prominent creator who says she paid nearly $900,000 in taxes before police raided her home and seized her savings, launched a petition calling for the law to be changed.<\/p>\n
She argued that money paid in taxes could instead contribute to Ukraine\u2019s defence effort, saying her own tax payments were equivalent to the cost of “hundreds of dead occupiers” on the battlefield.<\/p>\n
The petition attracted more than 25,000 signatures within days and was subsequently referred by President Volodymyr Zelensky to parliament for consideration.<\/p>\n
Bill awaits crucial vote<\/p>\n
The proposed legislation has already cleared its first parliamentary reading and is now awaiting a second reading.<\/p>\n
Supporters say the bill is about more than raising money.<\/p>\n
Decriminalising adult content could also reduce the burden on police and courts, allowing authorities to focus resources on more serious crimes, including national security threats and war crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The proposed law would scrap a Soviet-era ban on pornography while bringing thousands of creators into the formal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1237,13357,13355,13359,13356,13353,13354,13358],"class_list":["post-38365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-military-drones","tag-onlyfans","tag-pornography-decriminalization","tag-svitlana-dvornikova","tag-tax-revenue","tag-ukraine-adult-entertainment","tag-ukraine-war-effort","tag-yaroslav-zhelezniak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}