On May 28, 2026, the bill on decriminalizing pornography in Ukraine did not receive the required number of votes. The deputies also did not support sending it for a second reading.
On May 28, 2026, the bill on decriminalizing pornography in Ukraine did not receive the required number of votes. The deputies also did not support sending it for a second reading.
Bill No. 12191 "On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine to Improve Its Certain Provisions on Criminal Offenses Against Public Order and Morality" (regarding Article 301) received 207 votes.
In order for the law to be adopted, at least 226 votes of people's deputies are required.
The essence of the bill is to change the focus: while the current Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine punishes any production, storage, or distribution of pornography, the new version proposes to punish only crimes against minors. Any norms that allow for the prosecution of adults for creating content by mutual consent are proposed to be abolished.
At the same time, the severe punishment — up to 12 years in prison — remains, but it will be applied exclusively for coercion of minors.
The authors of the legislative initiative, including People's Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak and his colleagues from the law enforcement committee, separately emphasize: the document in no way legalizes child pornography, revenge porn, or the creation of deepfake videos without the consent of the person. The main goal is to protect adult authors from crime.
Zheleznyak also draws attention to an absurd conflict in Ukrainian legislation: while the state is trying to tax electronic platforms and collect money from content makers, these same people risk ending up behind bars for their activities.
Recall that, according to estimates by the publication "Economic Truth", Ukrainian OnlyFans authors declare only 5% of their real earnings due to fear of criminal prosecution .
If content creators paid personal income tax and military duty in full, the state budget would be replenished by approximately UAH 953 million in 2023 alone. However, the actual revenues turned out to be almost 20 times smaller — a modest UAH 48.1 million.
