KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, registered a bill today to decriminalize the creation and distribution of pornography.
According to a report by the Ukrainian News Agency, the bill, introduced by MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak of the center-right Holos Party, would amend Article 301 of the Ukrainian criminal code, which currently includes a prison sentence of three to five years for making and/or distributing “intimate content.”
“Dear friends, we have registered a revised bill on the decriminalization of porn,” Zhelezniak wrote in his Telegram channel. “This version is more conservative, but after more than a year of discussion with the committee and the working group, I am happy to announce that a compromise has been reached.”
Ukrainian lawmakers first proposed amending the 2009 law and decriminalizing porn in August 2023. The new bill, which Zhelezniak says has been signed by 27 MPs — including members of the Committee on Law Enforcement — would still criminalize porn without consent, such as revenge porn; extreme porn, including violent porn and zoophilia; CSAM content; and the distribution of porn to minors.
“This is the decriminalization of porn,” Zhelezniak added. “So that people are not thrown in prison for storing content or do not conduct mass ‘secret purchases’ in webcams. And at the same time, under Article 301, you can be punished even for storing nude photos on your personal phone.”
