The story of a special operation against webcam studios in Ukraine in 2026

On 14 July 2026, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted, by a majority vote, the third revised version of the draft law on the decriminalisation of pornography (No. 12191 ‘On Amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Regarding the Removal of Outdated Legal Provisions Restricting Freedom Expression and the Right to Privacy’) at its first reading. The agenda now includes the adoption of this Draft Law in the second reading and in its entirety. While our Parliament is on a dubious August vacation, we suggest recalling how the circumstances developed and what conflicts occurred around the adoption of the Draft Law this year. We would like to draw your attention to an investigation on this topic from the ‘Ekonomichna Pravda’ portal. (‘Legalife-Ukraine’)

On 20 May 2026, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU - Служба Безпеки України (СБУ)) conducted large-scale searches in regional departments of the National Police. As part of their investigations, law enforcement officers documented the operations of so-called ‘porn offices’, as well as the facts of their "covering up by National Police officers.

A week later, on 28 May 2026, a bill on the decriminalisation of the production and distribution of adult pornography was debated in the Verkhovna Rada. Corruption and ‘kickbacks’ for covering up such activities prompted MPs to place the bill on the agenda. However, it failed to secure a sufficient number of votes.

Three days before the bill was debated, hundreds of kilometres from the capital, another SSU operation was underway, which had not been publicly reported. Law enforcement officers in Zaporizhzhia (Запоріжжя), near the front line, carried out raids on a network of webcam studios whose activities had been under surveillance for at least a year and a half.

Special service officers documented the ‘criminals’ in the best traditions of spy films and Ukrainian reality: they used undercover female agents and purchased pornographic content using public funds.

Why did law enforcement in this frontline city take up a spicy business and is there a chance to decriminalize adult content in Ukraine?

What happened

On 25 May 2026, on the eve of the failed vote on the bill to decriminalise the production of pornographic content involving adults, the SSU carried out a series of searches at webcam studios in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro (Дніпро), as well as at the homes of individuals involved in their operations.

The raids marked the culmination of a year-and-a-half-long investigation by law enforcement agencies into the illegal activities of the pornography industry in cities near the front line. The main suspect – Vladislav (Владіслав) (name changed at the interviewee’s request) – spoke to EP about the case. He introduced himself as a lawyer who provides consultancy services to a network of webcam studios, as well as a defence lawyer representing those accused of producing and distributing pornography.

According to Vladislav, his job was to advise webcam studio administrators and models to ensure that their activities would not formally violate the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In the lawyer’s view, the law prohibits the creation and distribution of pornographic material, whereas an online broadcast does not constitute such material until it is recorded and saved as a separate video file.

The man reviewed the materials from the pre-trial investigation but refused to pass them on to EP, as doing so would incur criminal liability. Below is a description this story in the lawyer’s own words.

The business Vladislav worked with consisted of two webcam studios where models streamed content (including pornographic material) on specialised platforms. Each studio ‘employed’ up to ten models, providing them with premises, cameras and equipment.

In January 2025, a young woman was ‘hired’ by a studio in Dnipro; according to the case file, she was an undercover agent for the SSU.

According to the man, in March 2025 the woman filed a complaint with the law enforcement authorities, alleging that she had been extorted for 5,000 dollars. The SSU began an investigation into this fact, opening proceedings under Article 189 of the Criminal Code. At the same time, she continued to work at the webcam studio, receiving a salary. Moreover, the undercover agent documented the activities of this business using hidden video cameras and other special equipment.

The studios’ lawyer denies that models could have been extorted for money, let alone such sums. However, in response to a follow-up question from EP, he admitted that some models were fined for working whilst under the influence of alcohol. However, the amount of such a fine did not exceed 500 UAH, and it was allegedly not applied to the undercover agent.

“In July, she asked to be transferred to another studio – in Zaporizhzhia. She worked one shift there and then resigned. As far as I understand, this was necessary to establish the address of the second studio,” says Vladislav.

Following the agent’s resignation, the law enforcement investigation continued. In particular, in the autumn, SSU officers created fake accounts on the website hosting the webcam broadcasts, set up bank accounts and carried out ‘test purchases’ from the models. According to Vladislav, there were nine such purchases. Given the rates charged for such broadcasts, the man estimates that around 30,000 UAH may have been spent on the purchases.

At the beginning of 2026, the case was supplemented with an episode about the legalization of proceeds from crime (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). Such legalization allegedly took place in May–June 2025. At the same time, the crime itself, for which the money was received and legalized, took place only six months later.

EP sent a request to the SSU regarding this case. The editorial team tried to find out whether the information about the agent’s work undercover in a webcam studio, control purchases of content, and what the service’s interest in this case was related to. In response, the SSU stated that it could not disclose details of the pre-trial investigation without the permission of an investigator or prosecutor, and advised contacting the National Police, which is conducting the pre-trial investigation into these circumstances.

EP also sent a request to the National Police. At the time of publication, no response had been received.

The (in)visible crime

The production and distribution of pornography involving the voluntary participation of adults in Ukraine are punishable by fines or imprisonment for up to seven years. Every year, law enforcement agencies open over a thousand cases under the relevant article of the Criminal Code, but among them there are almost no proceedings against organised businesses.

The vast majority of cases concern cases when law enforcement officers discovered pornographic material on mobile phones during searches, the posting of pornographic photos and videos on sex-dating websites, the forwarding of explicit content in private messages, or its sale via Telegram. At the same time, webcam studios and OnlyFans agencies with multi-million turnovers have gone unnoticed by the law enforcement system.

EP has previously reported on the likely reasons for this selective blindness. As a rule, the organised porn industry ‘cooperates’ with law enforcement agencies, making regular payments to them for ‘protection’. Such a fee is often charged to individual models with high incomes and reach on relevant platforms.

In May 2026, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it had discovered a centralized system of "covering" the porn business. According to the investigation, representatives of the National Police (which has jurisdiction over this section of the Criminal Code) organised a scheme to obtain unlawful benefits in exchange for providing cover for individuals involved in the production and distribution of explicit content. In return for monetary rewards, the officials promised not to take any enforcement action and not to hold those involved to account.

Such payments were allegedly received by police leadership in the Ivano-Frankivsk (Івано-Франківськ), Ternopil and Zhytomyr (Житомир) regions. The intermediary in organising the schemes was the driver of one of the Deputy Ministers of Internal Affairs. The ‘subscription fee’ amounted to 20,000 dollars per month, which was received by the leadership of the regional unit. A further 5,000 dollars was received by the driver-intermediary.

The Office of the Prosecutor General told EP that they are investigating such schemes in other regions of the country as well. However, no new information regarding similar activities has appeared in the public domain since the end of May 2026.

Іt is possible that corruption rent was the reason for the interest of law enforcement officers in the work of the webcam studios mentioned above. On condition of anonymity, EP managed to speak to the administrator of the studio that was raided.

According to her, the studios had an “arrangement” with representatives of the National Police. “But this service (the SSU) was refused ‘cooperation’. And here we are with the result,” she noted.

Decriminalisation and the protection of children

In recent years, members of parliament have made two attempts to decriminalise the creation of pornographic content involving adults. Both attempts failed.

The first bill was submitted to parliament in the summer of 2023. At the time, alongside the decriminalisation of adult pornography, MPs sought to decriminalise Article 302 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment for the creation or maintenance of places of prostitution and pimping.

However, the bill was not even brought before parliament for consideration, as it met with political opposition and a lack of understanding.

The second attempt – was the failed bill on the decriminalization of adult pornography in May, which lacked 19 votes for adoption – was registered in November 2024 and awaited consideration for almost a year and a half.

It is significant that, for a long time, it was representatives of law enforcement agencies who were perhaps the most vocal opponents of the decriminalisation of pornography. They justified their position on the grounds of ‘protecting moral values and traditions’.

Following the failure of the latest attempt to legalise adult content, some MPs faced criticism from voters and, under this pressure, changed their position on the initiative: it should be passed, but in a different form.

“Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies are ‘protecting’ this sector, and we need to decriminalise these outdated regulations in order to close the loophole that allows for corruption. At the same time, we were approached by the Public Council attached to the ‘Equal Opportunities’ NGO, which brings together 200 reputable civil society organisations, with serious reservations regarding this draft law”, wrote Iryna Gerashchenko (Ірина Геращенко), an MP from the ‘European Solidarity’ party, at the end of May 2026. The day before, her parliamentary group had voted against the decriminalisation of pornography.

In early June 2026, a new bill was submitted to Parliament that contains norms for the decriminalisation of adult pornography. Its official title is “On Amendments to the Criminal Code to Strengthen Responsibility for the Production and Distribution of Child Pornography”.

In addition to abolishing responsibility under Article 301 of the Criminal Code, the document provides for strengthening responsibility for the production and distribution of child pornography. “So, there will be responsibility for real crimes. As for acts between consenting adults, we are doing away with the ‘medieval’ approach and the feeding ground for unscrupulous law enforcement officers”, said MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Ярослав Железняк), the author of this and the two previous draft laws.

This third attempt to decriminalise adult pornography has every chance of success, he tells EP. In particular, due to the presence in the document of norms aimed at strengthening the protection of children.

Text Yaroslav Vinokurov (Ярослав Вінокуров) — 13 July 2026

Source portal epravda.com.ua