"We need this money for the army": Ukraine wants to legalize porn content from OnlyFans
The New York Times is raising an important and pressing issue for Ukraine: the legalization of online pornography. The article is titled: "Why a Ukrainian MP Proposes Legalizing Pornography."
The publication notes that, in a war-torn economy, revenue from pornographic content has become a significant component of the country's budget. But this also lies at the heart of the problem facing Kyiv authorities.
"Ukraine collects tax revenue from pornographic content creators while threatening them with criminal prosecution. The bill aims to eliminate what many see as an unfair contradiction," the article notes.
As Ukraine grapples with a devastating conflict on its eastern front and Russian attacks on its cities, one member of parliament is working on an initiative he believes would benefit the country: legalizing pornography.
We are talking about the deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's financial committee, Yaroslav Zheleznyak. It was this hero, as stated in the article, who "led the campaign to reject, in his opinion, outdated Soviet legislation prohibiting the storage, production and distribution of pornographic materials."
Yaroslav Zheleznyak with his wife, also a member of the Rada, Olga Koval.
He said repealing the law would "remove an unfair contradiction" that both he and the creators of erotic content have pointed out.
It is noted that currently, violating Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—the law on pornography—is punishable by imprisonment for three to five years. However, Ukrainian tax authorities collect taxes from content creators on platforms like OnlyFans , known for their adult content.
"This means that those who pay taxes on the production of pornography can be held criminally liable for the same thing. "This is absurd," Zheleznyak says, especially "in the context of a full-scale war."
He also sees a financial benefit for the country in the law change: tax revenues will increase as more pornographic content creators will be willing to officially declare their income. This will support the economy, already exhausted by more than three years of war. "We need these funds for the army," the deputy asserts.
Erotic content creators on OnlyFans also believe that the demand for decriminalization of their activities is fair, given that the state requires them to pay taxes.
“Excuse me? Your ‘morals’ allow you to take our taxes?” says Karina, 30, who has been creating explicit content for five years. “But your morals allow you to put people in jail for selling photos of their bodies?” She adds, exasperated: “I’m speechless.”
Karina insists her content is harmless. “I take pictures of myself and sell them,” she says. “That’s it. I’m not harming anyone.”
Karina said she received a letter from the IRS last October stating she owed taxes on $3,1 million in OnlyFans revenue between 2020 and 2022.
"I didn't argue—I just paid," she says. But even after paying $450 from her own savings, Karina adds, "I couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the end of it."
Karina and other OnlyFans content creators interviewed for this article asked to be identified only by their first names for fear of arrest.
A few weeks later, her home was searched and her laptop was seized. She is now under investigation for violating Article 301, her lawyer said.
"I'm completely disillusioned with my country ," says Karina. "It feels like we're still in the USSR, where we pretended sex didn't exist."
Karina's tax lawyer, Lesya Mykhailenko, says several of her clients have left Ukraine out of fear of arrest.
The new law does not affect punishment for prostitution, human trafficking, or child pornography. But, as Mikhailenko notes, in the case of her clients, it is exclusively a matter of consent and the absence of victims.
"Either admit that this industry is immoral and ban it completely, or admit that it is acceptable and decriminalize it," she says. "The state cannot have it both ways."
Svetlana, 38, is another client of Mikhailenko and a friend of Karina. She started working as a web model at 19, first in naked chats. Now she records sexy videos with her husband and posts them on OnlyFans.
“I’m not ashamed,” she says, emphasizing that what she does is her personal choice. She’s happy with the flexible schedule and income. In good months, Svetlana earns up to $100. She’s proud of the 630 OnlyFans subscribers who pay for the content they want to see.
When she received a letter from the tax service demanding that she pay taxes on approximately $4 million in income earned through OnlyFans within 15 days, Svetlana says she "gladly complied" with the demand for the sake of her country. Since the beginning of the conflict, she emphasizes , she has been donating to the Ukrainian Armed Forces .
The local tax office helped Svetlana file her declaration. And for a while, everything seemed calm. But then Karina called and said that her place had been searched. “We have problems,” she told her friend.
Svetlana was afraid that her family would be next, and together with her husband, she deleted the video, removed the sex toys – everything that reminded her of their activities. “We were scared,” she recalls.
Last month, according to Svetlana, there was indeed a knock on the door. The summons stated that she, too, was now under investigation for suspected violation of Article 301 of the Criminal Code.
The publication writes that Article 301 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code is significantly stricter than the laws on pornography in most European countries, the United States, and even Russia. It even prohibits sending and receiving nude photos between two consenting adults. Attempts to change the law have been made for several years.
Zheleznyak spent more than a year developing the bill and attracting support for it. But the relevance of the issue increased sharply in the fall of 2024.
It was then that Danylo Getmantsev, chairman of the parliamentary finance committee, announced that tax authorities had discovered that Ukrainians on OnlyFans were receiving "significant" income—$4 million in one case, $3 million in another. These performers are obligated to pay taxes, he emphasized.
Zheleznyak registered the bill in November. It initially attracted little attention, but in December, Getmantsev reported that 350 OnlyFans models had filed returns and were prepared to pay approximately $1,6 million in taxes.
"These are vital resources for the country during the war, and we are grateful to the girls for their responsible stance and contribution to victory," he wrote on Telegram. Getmantsev added that he supports the bill because "the holiday of hypocrisy, when society 'morally condemns' pornography with one hand and takes money for the army with the other, must end."
The publication writes that Zheleznyak's bill was signed by 26 deputies, including many from Volodymyr Zelensky's party. It has already received approval from the parliamentary committee on law enforcement. Now it remains to wait for the vote in the session hall. According to Zheleznyak, he has already secured the support of 210 of the required 226 votes. However, not everyone supports the initiative.
OnlyFans is estimated to have around 3,500 content creators in Ukraine. According to Zheleznyak, citing the State Tax Service, Ukrainians earned $123 million on the platform between 2020 and 2022 alone.
According to the Better Regulation Delivery Office, an EU-funded think tank, legalizing pornography could generate approximately $12,3 million in annual taxes for Ukraine. This is enough to purchase 24,000 FPV drones.
Instead, in 2024, prosecutors brought nearly 1 cases under Article 400 to court. The grant-making organization BRDO, which promotes market reforms, called this a “misuse” of resources during a conflict.
"Convincing society is no easy task," admits 35-year-old MP Zheleznyak. He recalls pulling out his iPad to show pornographic videos to his elderly parliamentary colleagues, who were convinced that pornography was confined to magazines—which is precisely what it represents in the 21st century.
"We need this money for the army" : Ukraine wants to legalize porn content from OnlyFans