Since independence, Ukrainian women have featured prominently in international and domestic media reports about the sex industry, with post-Soviet modeling agencies often mentioned as the places where prostitutes begin their careers
Since independence, Ukrainian women have featured prominently in international and domestic media reports about the sex industry, with post-Soviet modeling agencies often mentioned as the places where prostitutes begin their careers. The country’s law-enforcement bodies and modeling agencies acknowledge at least a casual link between the two ‘professions’ but say they can do little to prevent it.
“Young girls coming to Kyiv from the regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv – are looking for a better life. Ukraine’s got a lot of beautiful girls, and they think their looks are the way to earn money. When competition for legal work gets tough they still need money, and this is how it starts,” said Daniil Klyuchnikov, the deputy head of the department for fighting human trafficking crimes under the Interior Ministry.
Ukraine’s parliament decriminalized prostitution in January of this year by approving an amendment to the country’s Criminal Code, thus redefining it as an administrative offense that subjects both solicitors and clients to fines, rather than prison terms. However, the provision of middleman services by pimps and madames is still considered a serious crime.
Klyuchnikov said if a business or individual offers their clients sexual services performed by third persons, and accepts payment for these services, this falls within the purview of dealing in prostitution under paragraph 4, Article 303 of the Criminal Code. Such actions, Klyuchnikov said, can lead to a prison sentence of five to seven years for the offender.
But Ukrainian legislation does little to inhibit prostitutes who work for themselves.
“Prostitution is a social problem, and society holds two completely different positions concerning this problem – either to legalize prostitution, or to fight and destroy it,” Klyuchnikov said.
“I understand the second option, but taking into account Soviet practices, I think it’s unacceptable. We can’t destroy this social phenomenon, and if it is repressed, prostitution would just go underground and become completely uncontrollable,” he said.
Klyuchnikov said the next logical step would be legalization of the profession.
“However, I do not think our society is ready for such changes,” he added.
According to Klyuchnikov, the provision of intermediary sex services, which remains a criminal offense, are common among modeling agencies; however, he said, the Interior Ministry has yet to receive any complaints from alleged victims.
Representatives of Ukraine’s modeling industry say that prostitution is no more common in their business than in related occupations, such as acting or even sports, and that it’s almost impossible to police.
“We cannot control our models’ personal lives. If they provide intimate services outside the agency, this is their personal affair,” said Vlada Litovchenko, the owner of Karin MMG, one of the largest modeling agencies in Ukraine and the only agency to have one of its models make the finals of the Miss Universe pageant, in 2006.
Litovchenko said that Karin MMG concludes contracts with its models that do not include any conditions regarding their personal lives.
“Of course, if a girl’s behavior is too provocative and can affect the agency’s reputation, as the owner of the agency, I have the right to break our relations,” she added.
Anna, a 20-year-old model who works with Ukrainian and foreign modeling agencies and who asked that her surname remain confidential, said she is convinced that prostitution, and even human trafficking, are pervasive among small Ukrainian agencies.
“Models receive propositions for sex services all the time, mostly from the United Arab Emirates, France, Italy and Japan. If we are talking about countries of the former USSR, I can say that there are a lot of requests from Russian oligarchs,” she said.
“When asking a model for one-time intimate services, a client usually suggests a starting price of $300. If he orders a girl for a long period of time, they discuss a monthly salary that usually starts from $1,500 a month, depending on the client’s demands and other conditions,” she added.
Anna said that an agency providing such services makes the arrangements for the client, while the model herself may not always know the true nature of the work she is being proposed.
“The girl could be told she is taking part in some kind of beauty contest,” she said.
Anna, who has been working as a model since the age of 14, said she was once offered to perform sexual services while working as a model in an advertisement for a construction company abroad.
Anna said, however, that she doesn’t believe large, well-known modeling agencies get involved in the sex business.
“I know for sure that such agencies do not do this. Big agencies can see what the client wants. If he wants intimate services, they simply won’t do business with him,” she added.
Iryna Gordyeyeva, the director of the Koltso modeling agency, which has been working on the Ukrainian market for the last 10 years, said that the combination of modeling work and the behavior of models depends greatly on the working approach of the agency itself. According to her, if an agency’s operations are completely legal, then it wouldn’t appreciate intimate services being provided within the organization.
“We provide psychological and other kinds of trainings for our models, teach them how to behave in complicated situations and, certainly, we warn our models that if their reputation could be detrimental to the agency, we’ll take appropriate measures, right up to breaking our relations,” Gordyeyeva said.
“Luckily, we haven’t had such cases at Koltso. We are a strong and presentable organization and can afford to turn down questionable proposals,” she added.
According to Gordyeyeva, the Ukrainian modeling market developed chaotically, with little regard to internationally established rules in the industry. She said that the lack of clear positioning on the market was one of the reasons why modeling agencies attracted clients in search of sex services. “It wasn’t completely clear just what a modeling agency really was – a fashion theater, or just a photo-bank of beautiful girls,” she added.
There are about 70 modeling agencies currently operating in Kyiv, and several hundred more working in the regions, according to Jan Mednikov, chief editor of the Ukrainian web portal Models Gallery, which advertises Ukrainian models. According to a book co-authored by Mednikov and Litovchenko, entitled “The Model Profession” Ukrainian models earn from Hr 20 to $300, depending on the model’s experience, the type of show and where it is held. For example, taking part in the demonstration of a designer’s new collection could fetch a model from $20 to $50 in Kyiv, but five times as less in the regions. For comparison, working on the catwalks of Paris or New York, according to Mednikov and Litovchenko, could pay $1,000 per hour or more. Kyiv agencies receive about 20 percent of a model’s earnings, while in the regions, the figure is about 50 percent.
