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KYIV: As Ukraine contends with a war raging on its eastern front and Russian attacks on its cities, one lawmaker is working on something that he says could help the nation: legalising pornography.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak
, deputy chair of the Ukrainian parliament's finance committee, is leading a push to ditch what he sees as an outdated Soviet-era legislation that bans the possession, production and distribution of pornography. Doing so, he said, would remedy what he and people making pornographic content say is an unfair contradiction. Violations of Ukraine's laws on pornography - Article 301 of the criminal code - are punishable by three to five years in prison.
But Ukraine has been collecting taxes from content creators on adult websites like OnlyFans. That means people who pay taxes on the pornography they produce can be prosecuted for it. Zhelezniak sees another benefit for Ukraine - it would increase tax revenue since more pornography creators would be willing to declare their earnings - a boost for a war-torn economy .
Pornography creators say it is only fair that their work be decriminalised given that they are being asked to contribute to the tax rolls. "Excuse me? Your 'morals' allow you to take our tax money?" said Karina, 30, who has been making sexually explicit content for five years. But "your morals allow you to imprison people for selling pictures of their own bodies?" Ukraine's Article 301 is stricter than similar laws in most European countries, the US and Russia, and even prohibits sending or receiving nude photos between consenting adults. Efforts to amend it have been in the works for long.
The bill - co-signed by 26 other lawmakers, including many from President Zelenskyy's party - has been endorsed by parliament's law enforcement committee. It now awaits a vote in parliament.
Yulia Tymoshenko, an opposition politician, has, however, slammed the appropriateness of the bill in wartime. "Start living and working for the sake of Ukraine and for the people." The head of the National Police said the legalisation would "have a negative impact on moral values." But Karina said her content is harmless. "I take photos of myself and sell them," she said. "That's it. I don't hurt anyone." Karina said she got a letter from tax authorities in Oct saying she owed money on $3.1 million in OnlyFans earnings from 2020 to 2022. "I didn't argue - I just did it," she said. But even after paying $450,000 in taxes from her savings, her house was raided and her laptop seized. Now she is under investigation.
Decriminalising pornography could bring in around $12.3 million in taxes annually, as per a EU-funded thinktank in Ukraine. That would be enough to buy 24,000 FPV drones or support Ukraine's anti-graft court for a year, it said.
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