Prostitution in Ukraine

Ukraine is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked transnationally for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation.

The transition process inflicted economic hardship in the nation, with nearly 80% of the population forced into poverty in the decade that followed its independence.

[3] The economic decline in Ukraine made the nation vulnerable and forced many to depend on prostitution and trafficking as a source of income.

[6] Research by the State Institute for Family and Youth Issues indicates that, for many women, sex work has become the only adequate source of income: more than 50% of them support their children and parents.

[8][9] Ukraine is now known to have a greater number of trafficking victims than any other Eastern European nation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

[11] Ukrainian women have been exported to countries across the world, such as Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Spain, Hungary, United Arab Emirates, Syria etc.

[8] If they succeed in paying off their debt, some become recruiters, going back to Ukraine and telling friends and family they made a significant amount of money by going abroad.

[14] The group most prone to prostitution are ones belonging to poor families, homeless children and orphans; the exposure of living on the streets without protection makes them the most vulnerable.

[17] Although child prostitution in Ukraine is illegal, a retrospective inquiry of adults shows that 20% of women and a 10% of men have experienced a sexual abuse by the age of 18.

[18][21] The social stigma and poverty that often accompany sex work also make it difficult to get prevention measures and treatment.

[23] It states that "involving or compelling a person to prostitution by deceit, blackmail, distress of the person concerned, or using violence or threats, thereof pimping is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to five years"[23] If this act is committed in respect to a group of individuals, the sentence extends to a term of four to seven years.

[23] On 12 January 2005 the Ukrainian parliament passed tougher criminal penalties for human trafficking and coerced prostitution.

[25] On 23 September 2015, Ukrainian MP Andriy Nemirovsky proposed a draft law that would legalize prostitution in Ukraine and would consider individual and organization that provides sexual services for money as entrepreneurs.