To investigate crimes related to pornography, the law enforcement system makes a lot of efforts that require certain expenses, including conducting examinations, so-called "control purchases" and legal proceedings. The latter type of expenses cost the state over 5 million UAH, and what about the rest?
To investigate crimes related to pornography, the law enforcement system makes a lot of efforts that require certain expenses, including conducting examinations, so-called "control purchases" and legal proceedings. The latter type of expenses cost the state over 5 million UAH, and what about the rest?
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, 1,464 criminal proceedings were opened in Ukraine in January-August 2025 for the creation of pornography. However, far from all of these cases are brought to court, reports Economic Truth.
During the period of the full-scale war in Ukraine, 247 verdicts were handed down in cases of creating porn, and 287 people were convicted (approximately 150 for their own content, the rest for someone else's). Each such case requires a state examination with a review of a large amount of video and photo materials.
The average cost of such examinations (of which there may be several within one sentence) is UAH 11.3 thousand. In total, since 2022, the costs of examinations have reached UAH 4.9 million. These amounts, ultimately, are imposed by the court on the convicts to compensate the state.
According to one court decision , for 33 hours of video viewing, the expert received about 15,000 UAH — that is, approximately 500 UAH per hour .
Another expense item is so-called "control purchases," when police officers, under the guise of ordinary users, purchase pornographic content. But the effectiveness of this approach is questionable, because most often it is amateur or private content that does not harm society.
But not every case mentions such expenses, so the amount "Control purchases" are difficult to calculate. For example, these costs were indicated in only about 25 cases - this is about 60,000 UAH.
The third type of expenses is judicial. "Over the three years of the war in cases under Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, more than 1,700 court hearings with corresponding rulings have been held. The state spends 20-25 billion UAH annually on maintaining the judicial system, which in total considers about 8 million hearings and rulings. Therefore, one court hearing costs the state an average of about 3,000 UAH," EP journalists calculated.
Thus, the costs of the legal process alone in porn cases amount to about UAH 5.1 million. And this does not take into account the work of prosecutors, investigative actions, expert institutions, and the time of all parties involved.
