Ukraine’s parliament may legalize pornography

Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a member of the opposition party Holos in the Ukrainian parliament, is pushing for the legalization of pornography in the country. One of the arguments is that it could help fund the country’s armed forces.

Ukraine has a long-standing ban on the production, distribution and possession of pornographic material. Zheleznyak, a spokesman for the opposition party Holos, has now collected 25,000 signatures in support of his petition to legalize pornography, according to several media reports.

Zheleznyak argues that current laws encourage corruption and that legalizing pornography could help finance Ukraine’s war. According to Zheleznyak, the government received more than 34 million hryvnia (about $11 million) in taxes in the first half of 2023 from sites like OnlyFans, whose majority owner is Ukrainian-American businessman Leonid Radvinsky.

“A Soviet legacy”

The bill would amend Article 301 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code, a law that Zheleznyak also argues is an excessive legacy of the Soviet era.

– Nothing short of stupidity. It does not change anything pertaining to child pornography, human trafficking, or prostitution.

– We are not even talking about OnlyFans, but about consuming this content in general. Sending someone to prison for up to eight years for sending or receiving nudes is a Soviet legacy, the MEP suggested.

Yaroslav Zheleznyak also argues that the Ukrainian police have “better things to do than chase camgirls,” citing statistics showing that in 2021, 85,500 working hours were spent on pornography cases, which he calculates amounts to one year of daily work for 41 investigators.

It is estimated that several thousand Ukrainians are already actively engaged in the production of pornography.