‘The moral views of individuals cannot take precedence over human rights and freedoms’, Boris Zakharov

We are supplementing the SERIES OF INTERVIEWS “ON WAR AND SEX WORK”, in which we talk about the life of Ukrainians, the fate of sex workers and the sphere of sex services in Ukraine during the war, with a new series of conversations. This time we decided to talk to the leaders of our partner public organizations, with whom we share all the difficulties and challenges of protecting the rights of sex workers in different corners of our Ukraine during the war.

Here is an interview with Boris Zakharov, director of the ‘A Man and the Law’ («Людина і Право») Foundation and project manager at the Kharkiv Human Rights Group (KHRG) (Харківської Правозахисної Група - ХПГ)

‘Legalife-Ukraine’ (L-U): Welcome to our portal! We’re always delighted to speak with our long-standing partners in the defence of human rights in Ukraine. Please tell us what changes have taken place over the last four years of the war in your life and in the work of the Foundation and the Kharkiv Human Rights Group/ KHPG?

Boris Zakharov: With the start of the full-scale invasion of russia in February 2022, my life changed radically.

In the early days, the most important thing was to evacuate my family. Thanks to the help of friends, I managed to get my family to safety quickly. After that, I switched my focus entirely to voluntary and humanitarian work.

I was forced to stop my human rights TV programme "A Man and the Law" («Людина і право») on the ‘Espreso’ TV channel. The channel itself moved to Lviv, and I began actively supporting the front line. The activities of our charitable foundation, "A Man and the Law", changed in the same way.

One of our first decisions was to direct all the money that were in the fund’s accounts at that time towards supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After that, we completely refocused the foundation’s activities on providing assistance to military personnel and civilians affected by the war.

Later, our foundation, together with the Kharkiv Human Rights Group, received half of the Nobel Peace Prize funds awarded to International Memorial to support the families of civilians killed in the war and those most severely affected by it. We are still using these funds today, continuing to help such families.

From the very start of the full-scale war, I regularly travelled—once or twice a month—on humanitarian missions to the front line and to areas close to the front. We collected and delivered humanitarian aid to military personnel and the civilian population. During the first two years of the full scale war, classic human rights activities took a back seat - we were primarily engaged in volunteer, charitable and humanitarian work.

At the same time, the priorities of international donors also shifted. They virtually stopped funding projects aimed at protecting human rights from violations by the Ukrainian authorities, and focused on documenting war crimes, their international legal qualification, preparing materials for the International Criminal Court, and assisting victims of the war.

It is precisely these areas that the KHRG is now largely engaged in. However, it is important to understand that a significant part of this work is of a service nature. We help people affected by the war to obtain documents, register in the relevant registers, use national protection mechanisms and apply to international institutions.

On the humanitarian mission near front line in Barvinkovo, Kharkiv region, May 2022

In particular, the Kharkiv Human Rights Group (KHRG) actively cooperates with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the UN Human Rights Committee, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organisations. A separate and important direction is assistance to Ukrainian prisoners of war, civilian prisoners, their families, as well as the search for missing persons. Today, this work occupies a significant part of the Kharkiv Human Rights Group’s activities.

Regarding the protection of human rights against potential violations by the Ukrainian authorities, during the first years of the full scale war the KHRG largely confined itself to issuing statements, appeals and expert advocacy. We initiated almost no new strategic court cases and provided virtually no representation in Ukrainian courts, although we continued to monitor cases already pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

This year, the situation began to change.

The Kharkiv Human Rights Group has received support from the New Democracy Fund (NDF) to prepare its annual report, ‘Human Rights in Ukraine: 2025–2026’. In it, we will analyse the most pressing human rights issues that have arisen during 2025 and the first half of 2026.

In addition, the project involves large-scale judicial monitoring, an analysis of case law in the most problematic categories of cases, and the preparation of a comprehensive report on the state of human rights in Ukraine.

Its main aim is to demonstrate the extent to which Ukraine is fulfilling its human rights obligations and how successfully it is progressing along the path to European integration. After all, it is the rule of law, an independent judiciary and respect for human rights that form the basis for Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union.

L-U: Given that you have paid a lot of attention to advocating for changes to our legislation and analysing court cases, how would you comment on the adoption at first reading on 14 July 2026 in the Verkhovna Rada of Bill No. 12191, which aims to remove outdated Soviet provisions from the Criminal Code and decriminalise the creation of adult content by mutual consent between adults?

Boris Zakharov: I certainly support this bill. It is absolutely correct decision. I hope it will be adopted in the second reading.

In my view, this should have been done many years ago. It is a legacy of Soviet legislation, which criminalised voluntary actions by adults that cause no harm to others. In my opinion, a simple principle should apply here: ‘My body, my business’. The moral views of individuals cannot take precedence over human rights and freedoms.

I generally consider it barbaric to criminalise the production of pornography between consenting adults. The same applies to the criminalisation of consensual sexual services. I see no reason for this.

On the contrary, this sphere should be regulated in a civilised manner. It has always existed and will not disappear as long as there is supply and demand. It is therefore better for this activity to be legal, transparent, taxed and subject to state oversight. This would benefit both those working in this sector and the state. Especially now, when Ukraine is at war and every hryvnia of revenue counts.

To be honest, I cannot see any arguments against such an approach at all. On the other hand, maintaining criminalisation serves as a convenient tool for blackmail and corruption.

Boris Zakharov, photo by Andre Hirtz

L-U: In your opinion, how important is decriminalisation of sex work in Ukraine today? After all, members of the Verkhovna Rada say that it is “not timely”.

Boris Zakharov: In my opinion, it is always timely. Because in this situation the state budget receives tax revenue, and people receive freedom. Everyone wins. So what’s the problem? Why not? To be honest, I don’t understand the logic behind why it could be “not timely”. And, as far as I know, many MPs don’t understand it either. Some even say that the current ban is simply a cover-up.

Obviously, if some activity is in the shadows, taxes are not paid, then someone is controlling that shadow. The oldest profession has not disappeared. It has always existed, it exists now, and it always will. There will always be people who need sexual services, and there will always be people willing to provide them.

Here, the role of the state can be only one: to regulate all this by law, make it legal, tax it and guarantee safety. Everything must be clearly regulated. Only then will the state be able to monitor both the health of sex workers and their safety.

And when all this operates in the shadows, it ends up in the hands of people who are not entirely honest — both those who organise this business and the officials or law enforcement officers who turn a blind eye to it. The state must take it out of the shadows and take it under its legal control.

L-U: In 2025, when all these scandals with users of the OnlyFans platform regarding legal prosecution by the tax service erupted in Ukraine, we had an initiative to approach the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine with a request to create a Ukrainian version of OnlyFans. What is your attitude to this?

Boris Zakharov: In my opinion, there are two sides to this coin.

On the one hand, creating a Ukrainian platform is entirely possible and a very progressive move. But on the other hand, I’m very concerned about security. There are currently too many threats and various means of influence in Ukraine, so we cannot be sure that such a system would be sufficiently protected and that its users’ personal data would not be used against them.

We have already seen cases where personal data from state registers has ended up on Telegram channels. That is why the issue of security is key for me here.

For example, if I were publishing some content myself, I wouldn’t go to a national platform. I would opt for a major international platform, which has greater resources for data protection and values its reputation.

L-U: Could you please tell us more about the programs through which the Kharkiv Human Rights Group is currently cooperating with Ukraine’s sex workers’ community?

Boris Zakharov: The Kharkiv Human Rights Group is cooperating with the sex worker community of Ukraine within the framework of a project supported by the New Democracy Fund.

As I mentioned, we are currently preparing a report entitled ‘Human Rights in Ukraine in 2025–2026’. In the section concerning the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups, we are working closely with our esteemed colleagues from the CO ‘Legalife-Ukraine’, using their analytical materials and developments. This enables us to provide the most comprehensive and objective account possible of the problems faced by this community.

Joining Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, June 2025

L-U: In your view, how important is cooperation and mutual support between NGOs today?

Boris Zakharov: I consider such cooperation to be absolutely essential. Today, human rights in Ukraine are under pressure from several sides at once.

On the one hand, we are still grappling with old Soviet relics, in particular the criminalisation of pornography and sex work. On the other hand, completely new challenges related to the war have appeared. And we are not talking only about Russia’s international crimes.

Of course, when we witness Russia’s genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on a daily basis, public attention naturally focuses on these. This is an existential war for the freedom and survival of the Ukrainian people. But that does not mean we can ignore human rights violations within Ukraine. They exist, they are serious, they are becoming more numerous, and some restrictions on human rights today are disproportionate.

That is precisely why it is especially important now for human rights organisations to act together, support one another and jointly defend human rights.

At the same time, I want to note that within the human rights community, as in civil society in general, there is a very broad spectrum of views — ranging from the far left to the far right. I, for example, defend liberal values ​​and I do not believe that liberal values ​​can be leftist. Leftist ideas contradict the principles of liberalism. That is why the phrase “left-liberal”, in my opinion, is an oxymoron.

My father — Yevhen Zakharov (Євген Захаров) — once explained this very interestingly in his lectures on human rights. He spoke of the famous slogan of the French Revolution — ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’. If we place Equality before Liberty, we end up with communism. If we put Fraternity before Liberty, we end up with fascism. That is precisely why fundamental human rights and freedoms must remain the top priority. Collective rights, or social, economic and cultural rights, must not be placed above first-generation rights. (And it is precisely these principles that we must uphold together. I heard similar reasoning in an interview with Yuval Noah Harari (Юваль Ной Харарі).

Nata Isaieva, Boris Zakharov and Dafna Rachok – discussing various problems with human rights defence of sex workers in Ukraine in TV studio of Espreso TV, September 2019

L-U: Thank you for this candid conversation. Finally, we have our traditional question: what advice would you give to budding activists who are just planning to get involved in supporting vulnerable communities, and what would you like to say to the sex workers’ community in Ukraine?

Boris Zakharov: I want to wish novice activists to clearly realize that they are fighting for human rights. And always to prioritise fundamental human rights and freedoms. To fight specifically for freedom, rather than for the rights of individual interest groups. If this key principle is identified and consistently defended, such a struggle will be successful.

And to the sex workers’ community, I wish them success in their difficult work in defending their rights. And, of course, I hope that their rights in Ukraine will finally be fully realised, that they will be properly protected, and, above all, that their work will be decriminalised.

‘L-U’: Thank you very much for this conversation and comments!

Interview by the portal ‘Legalife-Ukraine’