About the war and sex work with Olena Bubulych, Vinnytsia City, Ukraine

WE CONTINUE OUR SERIES OF INTERVIEWS ‘ABOUT WAR AND SEX WORK IN UKRAINE’ with our leaders and paralegals in 2026. Almost a year has passed since our last public conversation with our regional representatives, when we talked about the lives of Ukrainians, the fate of sex workers and the sphere of sex services in Ukraine during the war. This year, we return to this conversation to recall the events of four years of this war and analyse their impact on our community and society.

Olena Bubulych (ОЛЕНА БУБУЛИЧ) – leader of the sex workers’ community of CO «LEGALIFE-UKRAINE» in Vinnytsia City, Ukraine.

Natalia Dorofeeva, CO “Legalife-Ukraine” (ND): Hello, Olena! Tell me, how are you doing, what changes have occurred in your life over the past year?

Olena Bubulych: Nothing has changed in my personal life over the year. But the accumulation of various issues and problems of the community causes exhaustion, chronic fatigue and does not lift my spirits. I receive support from colleagues and friends, family - children and grandchildren. I live in hope for our victory, and I make efforts to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

ND: Probably, we all live with expectations associated with the war and its end. But life goes on, a lot has happened over these four years. Please share how your initiative group lived, what has changed during this time in your city?

Olena: There are girls who have been in the initiative group for many years, you can rely on them, they are the backbone of the group, they help and support the new ones. Each one now has many of their own problems and challenges, which have only increased over the past four years of this war.

I want to talk about the most active one. This is Katya (Катя), she completed almost all the training before the war, and during the war she did not leave the city due to her health, she is my assistant in all community matters. She attracts new sex workers to our group, provides information about the work of the community, and actively helps in the work of the office.

As for partners, our cooperation has lasted for many years, and it is impractical to change such partnerships. We only find new friendly doctors with whom we establish cooperation to solve the problems of the SWs. The Health Clinic Medical Center is our permanent and reliable partner, they provide contacts of doctors to whom we can contact with our SWs. But unfortunately, they cannot always satisfy all the needs of our SWs.

Our office also changed its address because the neighbors of the apartment building often quarreled because of the large flow of people into our apartment-office. Now we have moved to a private house, which is separated from the others. We are glad that it is on the first floor and we do not have to carry anything up the stairs. But the power outages continue constantly, which also affects our work not in the best way.

ND: You say that the residents were not happy with your neighborhood, it is a pity, but it is also typical to stigmatize and isolate "outsiders". And if you look beyond your house, is the attitude towards SWs changing in society? What other changes do you observe in public life during 2022-2025?

Olena: The attitude towards sex workers is practically neutral in our city, and in my opinion, this is because people have enough of their own problems to pay attention to others. The level of stigma has practically not changed as for now, and this is due to the war. By now questions to sex workers are not timely, mentions of sex work appear only in criminal news. There was no hate towards our organization before the war, and there is none now.

As for volunteering and helping our community – there are no changes in this either – we maintain ties and receive help at the same level as at the beginning of the war.

ND: If we recall the situation at the beginning of the war and compare it with the present times, what transformations have taken place in the sex work market, in your opinion?

Olena: During the war, the problems in the conditions and types of sex work have only worsened. It is very difficult for girls to find clients, whether on the highway, in a cafe, or by phone. There is great competition among SWs, and clients are trying to reduce prices as much as possible. Earnings are minimal.

The girls who went abroad at the beginning of the war — all returned, because they could not arrange their lives there and adapt. This year no one even tried to go abroad.

The number of girls working in the sex market is increasing every year. And in my opinion, this is due to the fact that the salary of a seller or a maid does not allow them to rent housing, to support themselves, their children, and family with that money.

In the photo: Initiative group of the CO «Legalife-Ukraine», Vinnytsia

IDPs appear in the city from time to time, which is associated with military operations and evacuation measures. Some of the IDPs say that they had no experience in sex work before the war, and now they are forced to look for work in this way.

For example, we have a woman, her name is Valentyna (Валентина), she came from Oleshki (Олешкі), Kherson region. She lost her home, property and hope to restore something. She has six children, an elderly mother and a nephew whose parents died, and whom she brought out of the occupied territory. She is forced to work part-time as a sex worker, because state assistance does not cover even half of the expenses that a family needs - housing, medicine, food, clothing, school, kindergarten and the minimum for the development of children.

ND: Do you have data from sex workers on the increase in cases of violence during the war? What security measures do women use today to protect themselves from risks?

Olena: Our girls’ clients have begun to lose their adequacy. They are more often aggressive, they try not to pay for services, bargain for every hryvnia, humiliate verbally and may even use physical force. There was a case when a client agreed with a girl to reduce the fee for services by almost half, and after that he accused her of stealing ten times the amount from him.

The security measures used by SWs are minimal, because the lack of funds for food, medicine for children and housing worry women more than their own protection. Before the war, SWs’ earnings were much higher. And in the last year, even with the increase in prices, they have not even half of the earnings that they had before the war. The increase in prices for housing, products and services does not make it possible to live, but only to survive. Therefore, yes, the risks of violence are very high, and SWs take these risks consciously. As for risky practices in work, they also agree more often, because it costs more, and as I said, the issue of higher earnings is a priority.

ND: Olena, what about the TCRSS raids (Territorial Center for Recruitment and Social Support)? Do girls feel any danger from them, or is there another impact of mobilization on the ability to provide sex services?

Olena: Because of the TCRSS raids, the number of clients has decreased, and girls are more often working "on call". Once again, girls are afraid to stand on the highway, because some male soldiers who are on vacation or undergoing treatment behave aggressively, and it is impossible to predict the development of events.

There was a case when two soldiers agreed with a woman to go to the dacha to have a good time in the evening. It ended with them holding her for three days, and her pleas to let her go to the young children had no effect on them. The whole time, the soldiers were drunk and threatened her with physical force.The girl ran away, so now she doesn’t work with the military.

ND: Please tell me how the needs of the community have changed over the past four years? What requests from the SWs are relevant now and what services do you provide in response?

Olena: The economic and social problems that I have already talked about remain the most relevant. The first thing I can and do is provide counseling, group or individual meetings as needed. That is, I provide the girls with comprehensive and verified information about options for solving each specific problem. Also, with the support of CO "Legalife-Ukraine", the girls receive humanitarian assistance from me in the form of food and hygiene kits, and they are grateful for this help.

I hold group meetings with them, at which we talk about the topics of protecting and preserving health, respecting human rights, the rights and obligations of a citizen of Ukraine, etc.

As for individual requests about violations of rights, here I redirect the SWs to our paralegals, who in turn help women restore their rights, to receive services, that is, protect our girls. These can be various cases, including discrimination, refusals in medical and social services, violations by employers, the police, the Trade Union Congress, etc.

I also often personally accompany girls to Administrative Services Center (ASC) and hospitals to resolve their issues.

In the photo: SWs consultation at the obstetrician-gynecologist of the Voronovitsa Family Medicine Hospital, Hrynko L.I.

ND: I think we need to explain to our readers why adult women and girls need accompaniment to these state institutions? Is the attitude of state authorities towards SWs changing, are they open to cooperation with you?

Olena: More often, escort is needed to state medical institutions, when a woman needs it urgently, and an appointment is made only after months, when the girl already has a negative experience of biased attitude from doctors, when she is in pain and cannot “turn on” a smile. And here I had to turn on all my personal qualities and look for friendly doctors, arrange an appointment, an examination by a doctor of a narrow specialization. In such cases, I am always there for the girls, so that at least with my attitude and support I can give a person who needs proper medical care a piece of warmth and attention.

There are also escorts of SWs girls to ASC. This is not about transparent offices in Vinnytsia, where professionals work more often, this is in rural areas, where everyone knows each other, where stigma and discrimination prevail over humanity, when the girl herself is afraid to contact. And so that she does not have a traumatic experience of communicating with closed-minded specialists, I was also there.

I recall a case with a SWs-single mother with many children, who lost her IDP certificate and could not register the place of residence of her three children, which was necessary for registration in kindergarten. She was required to renew this certificate and only then return to register the children’s place of residence certificate. I was with her when the specialist saw this IDP certificate on the monitor, but tried to send the woman to another specialist. My intervention, my conversation with the specialist was not long - I simply explained to her that the girl from Bucha (Буча), where she had experienced something that we cannot even imagine. I also explained that sending her to offices with three- and five-year-old children was unprofessional and inhumane.

In general, cooperation with state bodies always takes place within the framework of the law. When we applied together with SWs, we did not receive any refusals, all escorts ended with a positive result. As for the police, I have not had to contact them recently.

In the photo: Consultation with the psychologist of the Cabinet of Trust Iryna Pylypenko

ND: Currently, our self-organization pays great attention to restoring the mental health of sex workers. How do your activists feel and how do they cope with stress in war conditions?

Olena: The psycho-emotional state of the girls has changed little over the past year. The level of anxiety is often elevated, and I try to create a safe space where I conduct peer counseling three to four times a month, gather the girls into self-help groups, during which we have frank conversations over tea.

Also, during phone conversations, I try to stabilize the girls, and I do this almost every day. After the last massive shelling, two girls from Ladyzhyn (Ладижин) came to us, whose homes were damaged. We helped them calm down, reduce their anxiety and regain strength, found them everything they needed first and foremost – food, clothing, etc.

In the photo: Humanitarian aid to female sex workers from CO «Legalife Ukraine», Vinnytsia

ND: I know that your initiative group has many partners among organizations that help protect and support vulnerable groups. Who among them has been most involved over the years and what kind of assistance has they provided to your wards?

Olena: My cooperation with public organizations was built many years ago. I try to maintain these ties and appreciate all our partners.

For example, I always solve the problems of SWs who have disabilities or children with disabilities with the public organization “Vinnytsia City Organization for Social Development and Formation of Certain Underprotected Categories of Youth “Parostok”. They not only conduct rehabilitation activities for their beneficiaries, but they are also always ready to provide specific legal and practical advice to SWs living with disabilities.

Our partner is also the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, which provides humanitarian, legal and psychological assistance to IDPs of the SWs.

Among our regular partners, I would like to note the CO “100% Life” («100% Життя»), with which we cooperate in the issues of STI testing, hepatitis C, HIV, ART therapy.

Another of our esteemed partners is the All-Ukrainian Public Organization “Youzer”, which provides protection to people with mental illnesses. One of our sex workers has a 13-year-old son, he has mental disorders, he constantly runs away from home. As a mother, she was accused of improper upbringing of the child, threatened to take the child away, and refused to hospitalize the boy in a psychoneurological dispensary. It was thanks to the NGO “Youzer” that we were able to ensure the boy’s hospitalization, and they also provided legal support, so the conflict was resolved in favor of the mother and child.

Meeting with representatives of the Vinnytsia regional organization of the Ukrainian Red Cross on supporting women among the SWs

ND: Oleno, I am grateful to you for an interesting conversation, and finally, I would like to ask you to give some advice to our novice activists.

Oleno: To work as a leader of a community of vulnerable women, including sex workers, you need to have a lot of potential and personal skills, experience and desire. If your calling is to help people despite everything, the work of a leader is exactly what you have been looking for!

Interview by Natalia Dorofeeva, CO “Legalife-Ukraine”