As Ukraine contends with a warfare raging on its japanese entrance and Russian assaults on its cities, one lawmaker is engaged on one thing that he says might 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Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s finance committee, is main a push to ditch what he sees as outdated Soviet-era laws that bans the possession, manufacturing and distribution of pornography.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 legal code — are punishable by three to 5 years in jail. However Ukraine’s monetary authorities have been amassing 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 may be prosecuted for it. “It’s absurd,” Mr. Zhelezniak mentioned, particularly “within the midst of a full-scale warfare.”
He additionally sees one other profit for Ukraine in altering the regulation. It will improve tax income, he mentioned, since extra pornography creators could be keen to declare their earnings — a lift for an financial system struggling below the calls for of a warfare that has floor on for over three years.
“We’d like these funds for our army,” he mentioned.
Pornography creators say it’s only truthful that their work be decriminalized provided that they’re being requested to contribute to the tax rolls.
“Excuse me? Your ‘morals’ can help you take our tax cash?” mentioned Karina, 30, who has been making sexually express content material for 5 years. However “your morals can help you imprison folks for promoting photos of their very own our bodies?” She added in exasperation: “I’ve no phrases.”
Karina and different creators promoting erotic photographs 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, the USA and Russia, and even prohibits sending or receiving nude photographs between two consenting adults. Efforts to amend it have been within the works for years.
Mr. Zhelezniak spent greater than a 12 months 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 realized that Ukrainians on OnlyFans had been making “vital” 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 warfare 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 regulation as a result of “the pageant 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 get together — has already been endorsed by Parliament’s Legislation Enforcement committee. It now awaits a vote in Parliament, and Mr. Zhelezniak advised a latest occasion that he has secured 210 out of the mandatory 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 residing and dealing for the sake of Ukraine and for the folks.”
The pinnacle of the Nationwide Police, Ivan Vyhivskyi, additionally opposed it, arguing that legalization would “have a damaging influence on ethical values.”
However Karina insists that her content material is innocent. “I take photographs of myself and promote them,” she mentioned. “That’s it. I don’t harm anybody.”
Karina mentioned she received 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 below investigation on suspicion of violating Article 301, in line with her lawyer.
“I’m utterly disillusioned with my nation,” Karina mentioned. “It’s like we’re nonetheless in the united statesS.R., the place they pretended intercourse didn’t exist.”
Lesya Mykhailenko, her tax legal professional, mentioned a number of shoppers had moved overseas for worry of jail time.
The brand new regulation wouldn’t alter punishments for prostitution, human trafficking and pictures of kid sexual abuse. However not like these, Ms. Mykhailenko mentioned, her shoppers’ actions are victimless — and contain consent.
“Both declare that this trade is immoral and ban it completely, 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 good friend of Karina’s. She began webcam modeling at 19, first with topless video chats. Now she information intercourse movies along with her husband to put up on OnlyFans.
“I’m not ashamed,” she mentioned, adamant that what she does is her selection alone. She enjoys the work, its versatile schedule and the cash. In a superb month, Svitlana mentioned, she will make round $100,000. She’s proud to have 630,000 followers on OnlyFans, who pay for content material “they wish to see.”
When she received 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 army for the reason that warfare started, Svitlana mentioned.
The native tax workplace helped Svitlana file her declaration. And for weeks, every little thing appeared superb. Then Karina known as to say that her home had been raided. “We’re in bother,” she advised her.
Svitlana mentioned she feared her home could 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 below 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 may represent pornography below Ukrainian regulation. (A lot, however not all, of the content material on OnlyFans is sexually express.) On OnlyFans alone, Ukrainians earned $123 million between 2020 and 2022, in line with Mr. Zhelezniak, citing data from the State Tax Service.
Decriminalizing pornography might usher in round $12.3 million in taxes yearly, according to the Better Regulation Delivery Office, an E.U.-funded assume tank in Ukraine. That will be sufficient to purchase 24,000 FPV drones or help Ukraine’s anti-corruption court docket for a 12 months, it mentioned.
As an alternative, prosecutors introduced almost 1,400 circumstances below Article 301 to court docket in 2024 — up from 757 the 12 months earlier — which the Better Regulation Delivery Office known as an “inappropriate” allocation of sources throughout warfare.
It takes time to alter minds, mentioned Mr. Zhelezniak, 35. He recounted breaking out his iPad to provide 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, “isn’t any laughing matter.”
Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.
