Will Ukraine legalise porn to fill up its war chest?

As Ukraine continues to grapple with the human and economic toll of Russia’s ongoing invasion, an unusual legislative initiative has entered the national spotlight — the potential decriminalisation of pornography.

Led by Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a proposal currently working its way through Ukraine’s legislative process aims to reform laws that many critics argue are relics of the Soviet era and incompatible with today’s realities — both moral and financial.

While the country’s defence needs continue to escalate, some lawmakers believe taxing the adult content industry more effectively could provide a much-needed revenue stream to support Ukraine’s war effort.

However, the bill has drawn polarising responses from lawmakers, state officials, adult content creators and citizens, raising questions about morality, legality and priorities during wartime.

What Ukrainian law says

Under current Ukrainian law — specifically Article 301 of the Criminal Code — the creation, distribution, and even possession of pornographic material is illegal and punishable by three to five years of imprisonment.

This law, stricter than those in many European countries, the United States, or even Russia, also prohibits the private exchange of nude images between consenting adults.

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Yet paradoxically, Ukrainian tax authorities have been collecting revenue from adult content creators operating on platforms like OnlyFans.

Zhelezniak, who serves as the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s finance committee, argues that this contradiction must end, reported The New York Times.

“It’s absurd,” he said, “especially in the midst of a full-scale war.” According to him, many creators are currently being taxed for content that the state still criminalises — a situation that he believes not only undermines legal consistency but also drives corruption and wastes law enforcement resources.

A dire need for legislative reform

The legislative push to amend Article 301 began gathering serious momentum in late 2024 after revelations from Ukraine’s tax authorities sparked widespread attention.

Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the Parliament’s Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy, disclosed that hundreds of adult content creators had declared significant earnings.

In some cases, individuals reportedly made millions of dollars through OnlyFans — with one creator earning $4 million and another $3 million, reported The New York Times.

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By November 2024, Zhelezniak had registered a draft law designed to decriminalise — but not necessarily legalise — pornography.

“In short, we’re just amending Article 301 of the Criminal Code to ensure adults aren’t sent to prison for three to five years for creating and distributing intimate videos,” he explained at the time.

The bill, co-signed by 26 lawmakers, including members of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s party, gained further traction after the Parliamentary Law Enforcement Committee endorsed it in December with 11 votes in favour and two abstentions.

“This is very important money for the country in the war and we are grateful to the girls for their responsible position and contribution to the victory,” Hetmantsev wrote on Telegram, voicing his support for the bill.

“The festival of hypocrisy, when society ‘morally condemns’ with one hand and takes money for the army with the other,” he added, “must end.”

While tax declarations from adult content creators have helped fill Ukraine’s wartime budget — with over 59 million UAH (approximately $1.6 million) collected from 350 creators in late 2024 — the crackdown on such individuals continues.

Potential via tax revenue

From 2020 to 2022, Ukrainians reportedly earned a combined $123 million from OnlyFans, according to data from the State Tax Service cited by Zhelezniak.

In the first half of 2023 alone, the platform generated over Hr 34 million (approximately $920,000) in value-added tax revenue for Ukraine’s budget.

Dmytro Horiunov, an economist with the Center for Economic Strategies, emphasised that production of consensual erotic content should not be a criminal offence. “Production of goods and services that don’t hurt anyone shouldn’t be banned nor prosecuted by the law,” he had told The Kyiv Independent in September 2023.

Independent analysts at the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), an EU-funded Ukrainian think tank, estimate that decriminalising adult content could result in an additional $12.3 million in annual tax revenue — enough to purchase 24,000 first-person view (FPV) drones or cover the full operational costs of Ukraine’s anti-corruption court for a year.

Instead, law enforcement continues to pursue criminal cases. In 2024, nearly 1,400 cases were filed under Article 301 — almost double the 757 cases the year prior. BRDO called this a misallocation of state resources, especially during a time of war.

Exploitation, corruption and abuse

Beyond the financial costs, proponents of reform also cite rampant corruption and abuse tied to the underground adult industry.

Ihor Samokhodskyi, head of the IT bureau at BRDO, explained that a shadow market exists due to the current legal framework, allowing law enforcement officials to exploit and extort content producers and studios.

“There are thousands of cases where policemen not only ask for money but also for sexual services,” Zhelezniak told The Kyiv Independent in a September 2023 report. He also noted that webcam studios are frequently forced to pay for “protection” from law enforcement, which enables them to continue operating under threat of blackmail or prosecution.

A 2020 investigation by the Ukrainian outlet Zaborona had earlier documented how webcam studios had become vulnerable targets for police harassment and corruption — evidence, advocates argue, that further reinforces the need for decriminalisation.

Will the bill pass?

Despite growing political support, the draft law has not gone unchallenged. Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko strongly criticised the bill’s timing, stating in Parliament, “What are you guys doing? Start living and working for the sake of Ukraine and for the people.”

Ivan Vyhivskyi, head of the National Police, also voiced his opposition, claiming that changes to pornography laws would “have a negative impact on moral values.”

His position echoes a segment of Ukrainian society that still views pornography as fundamentally immoral or harmful, despite its widespread online availability and increasing economic significance.

Zhelezniak, however, remains undeterred. He said he has already secured 210 of the 226 votes needed to pass the bill in Parliament and expects it to come up for a vote soon.

To educate older lawmakers who may be unfamiliar with the realities of modern digital adult content, Zhelezniak said he often has to “break out his iPad” and show them what “porn means in this century," reported The New York Times.

While he admits to seeing the irony and humour in his advocacy, he underscores the seriousness of the issue: “It’s no laughing matter.”

With thousands of adult content creators working under ambiguous legal conditions, and the state both benefiting from and criminalising their labour, the contradiction has reached a tipping point.

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With inputs from agencies