Business
Ukraine Weighs Legalizing Pornography To Fund 30,000 War Drones, Curb Police Corruption Amid Fiscal Strain
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian lawmakers are pushing to legalize pornography as a way to raise tax revenue for the country’s war effort against Russia, with proponents arguing the move could generate enough money annually to purchase roughly 30,000 military drones while also cutting off a source of police corruption tied to the industry’s current underground status.
Under Ukrainian law, the production, distribution and possession of pornographic content is illegal, carrying potential prison sentences of up to seven years. Despite that legal prohibition, the adult content industry, driven largely by platforms such as OnlyFans, has grown into a significant economic activity within the country. According to figures cited by The Wall Street Journal, 7,900 Ukrainians earned more than $131 million through OnlyFans in 2023 alone.
Ukrainian tax authorities have increasingly sought to collect revenue from that activity in recent years, obtaining user information directly from OnlyFans and requiring content creators to declare and pay taxes on their earnings. That approach has created what critics describe as a legal contradiction: creators who comply with tax obligations risk simultaneously exposing themselves to criminal prosecution for producing content that remains illegal under Ukrainian law.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak, an opposition lawmaker who chairs Ukraine’s parliamentary finance committee and co-authored legislation to decriminalize the industry, has argued that legalization could generate as much as $25 million in annual tax revenue.
“Porn today is mostly online platforms, and those who earn on these platforms officially pay taxes. That’s millions of dollars going to the armed forces,” Zhelezniak said.
Zhelezniak has pointed out that while $25 million represents a relatively modest sum compared with the roughly $120 billion Ukraine says it needs annually for defense spending, the amount would still be sufficient to fund the purchase of approximately 30,000 drones, a meaningful contribution to the country’s ongoing military procurement needs.
The legislation co-sponsored by Zhelezniak and other lawmakers passed its first reading in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, in July, and is currently awaiting a second reading. The proposed bill specifically seeks to decriminalize only the creation and storage of pornographic content between consenting adults, while maintaining criminal liability for offenses including revenge pornography, deepfake pornography, extreme content, child sexual abuse material and distribution to minors.
“We’re simply changing Article 301 of the Criminal Code so that adults who film and distribute intimate videos aren’t thrown in prison for 3-5 years,” Zhelezniak wrote on his Telegram channel. “Currently, under Article 301, you can be punished even for storing nude photos on your personal phone.”
Facing continued legal risk, many Ukrainian OnlyFans models have relocated their operations abroad, either emigrating entirely or crossing into neighboring countries periodically to livestream content from outside Ukrainian jurisdiction. Some creators who remain in Ukraine have continued operating through webcam studios while still paying taxes on their earnings.
One such creator, Svitlana Dvornikova, became a central figure in the broader public debate after facing a police investigation tied to her work as an OnlyFans model. Authorities searched her home and seized a laptop, USB drives and approximately $200,000 in cash, subsequently charging her with producing pornography for profit. Dvornikova maintained that the seized cash represented money she had set aside specifically to pay her taxes.
Following the investigation, Dvornikova filed a public petition calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to support legalizing pornography. The petition gathered more than 25,000 signatures within a week, the threshold required to trigger an official presidential response, and Zelensky subsequently indicated that parliament would review the related legislation.
Lesia Mikhalenko, a tax attorney who has represented more than 100 OnlyFans models in Ukraine, has characterized pornography as fundamentally a “victimless crime,” arguing that a country actively engaged in war is misallocating scarce judicial and law enforcement resources by continuing to pursue prosecutions in this area.
This is not the first time Ukrainian lawmakers have attempted to address the issue. A similar decriminalization petition reached the required signature threshold in July 2022, but Zelensky ultimately declined to pursue changes at that time, citing existing legal provisions related to protecting public morality. The current bill, first registered in November 2024, gained support from the Verkhovna Rada’s specialized law enforcement committee in December before advancing through its first parliamentary reading this past July.
With the legislation now awaiting a second parliamentary reading and Ukraine continuing to face substantial wartime fiscal pressure, the outcome of the ongoing debate is likely to hinge on lawmakers’ willingness to formally separate the country’s existing tax collection efforts from its current criminal prohibitions — a gap that has left content creators like Dvornikova caught between complying with tax law and risking prosecution under the very statute the proposed legislation seeks to amend.
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Josefina Aguirre, a first-generation American whose family has run its NYC grocery store for nearly 30 years, says Mamdani’s city-run stores could threaten her livelihood and ultimately force her family out of business.
For nearly 30 years, Josefina Aguirre has helped keep alive the East Harlem grocery store her immigrant parents built from scratch. The family business has survived soaring rents, inflation, the pandemic and a changing neighborhood.
Now, she fears New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s grocery experiment could become the final blow to the family business.
Aguirre is among the neighborhood grocers suing Mamdani over his plan to open city-backed grocery stores across all five boroughs. The mayor says the stores will offer prices roughly 30% lower than comparable retailers. Local business owners argue the taxpayer-backed competition could force family-run stores to close.
EXPERTS SCORCH MAMDANI’S GROCERY PLAN AS AN ‘ILLUSION’ THAT WILL HAVE TAXPAYERS FOOTING THE BILL
“When we heard Mamdani was opening a grocery store where people are gonna save 30%, it scares us because we don’t have the money to compete,” Aguirre said. “We’re not scared of competition, we never have been. But when you have a grocery store coming in like this, it could take us out of business.”
One of the proposed stores is slated to open next year at La Marqueta, a public market just two blocks from Little Mexico, the grocery Aguirre’s parents opened in 1997. The city is expected to spend roughly $30 million to build the location, putting a taxpayer-backed competitor virtually on Aguirre’s doorstep.
MAMDANI’S AFFORDABILITY REVOLUTION STUMBLED AS RENT COSTS SOAR TO RECORD HIGHS
A $30 million city-backed grocery store is opening two blocks from NYC grocer Josefina Aguirre’s family business. (Kendall Rodriguez/Newsday RM/Getty Images)
For generations, neighborhood grocery stores have competed against one another, along with supermarket chains and big-box retailers. Aguirre said this fight is different because the city would be subsidizing a competitor that independent businesses cannot match.
“If I’m selling a whole chicken for [$10], and he’s giving it for $7, they’re gonna buy the $7 chicken,” Aguirre said. “Who doesn’t want a 30% discount?”
For Aguirre, the stakes extend well beyond losing customers.
“I pay my mortgage from here. I pay for my kid’s tuition. This is what I’ve been doing for over 30 years. Do I need to start over in a new career?”
NYC TAXPAYERS COULD PAY TWICE UNDER MAMDANI’S CITY-OWNED GROCERY STORE PLAN
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has made city-owned grocery stores a centerpiece of his affordability agenda, arguing the government-backed model can deliver lower prices to New Yorkers. (Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Aguirre’s concerns are at the heart of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of New York City grocers challenging Mamdani’s plan to use public funds to create grocery stores they argue private businesses cannot realistically compete against.
Mamdani has committed $70 million to opening five municipal grocery stores, one in each borough, saying the model will lower grocery bills for New Yorkers struggling with the rising cost of food. The stores would operate on city-owned property without paying rent or property taxes, savings Mamdani says would allow them to charge lower prices.
Independent grocers argue those same taxpayer-funded advantages would leave businesses like Little Mexico competing on an uneven playing field.
NYC GROCERS SOUND ALARM ON MAMDANI’S SUPERMARKET PLAN: ‘WE’LL LOSE CUSTOMERS’
Bodegas and small grocery stores have long been fixtures of New York City neighborhoods, serving generations of residents often just steps from their homes. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Mamdani’s grocery push is also an early test of his broader socialist vision for New York, putting government-run stores in direct competition with private businesses in a city synonymous with capitalism.
For Aguirre, the fight is personal.
“This is what my parents left us,” she said. “It’ll be sad to see us leave.”
But she has no intention of walking away from the business her family spent nearly three decades building.
“So what will happen next? The next thing would be closing our business, and we don’t want to close. We’ve been here for years,” she said.
Mamdani’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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