A mother of two was punished for selling pornography on Telegram

A native of the village of Lypetske in the Odesa region, who was officially unemployed and raising 2 minor children, decided to earn some money through Telegram. One sale brought her only 1,200 hryvnias, but ended with a criminal case, a fine and procedural costs totaling 37,565.60 hryvnias.

As established by the Peresypskyi District Court of the city of Odesa, in March 2026 the woman used a Telegram account named “Hari Krishna”. There she began communicating with a previously unknown man and offered him to buy a pornographic video for 1,200 hryvnias.

On 17 March 2026 at 17:05 the man transferred the money to her bank card. Already at 17:06 he received the video file.

And then the most interesting part of the story begins. In the published verdict the man is hidden under the designation PERSON_7, and the court does not explain at all how law enforcement found out about the private correspondence and the sale of the video.

So the question remains open: was this an ordinary buyer who, after the purchase, suddenly decided to go to the police, or was the man involved from the very beginning in documenting the crime?

There is no confirmation of the second version in the verdict, so it cannot be claimed that this was a controlled purchase or a staged buyer. At the same time, the scheme itself — an unknown man finding a seller, agreeing on specific content, transferring money, receiving the file, after which this very sale becomes an evidentiary episode of a criminal case — leaves that version open.

In court the woman did not argue. She fully admitted her guilt, confirmed that she sold a pornographic video via Telegram for 1,200 hryvnias, expressed remorse and said she would not do it again.

The court took into account that the woman had no prior convictions, was officially unemployed, was supporting 2 minor children, sincerely repented and assisted in the investigation.

On 24 September 2026 she was found guilty under part 2 of Article 301 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The punishment — a fine of 34,000 hryvnias.

In addition, 3,565.60 hryvnias in procedural costs were added. Thus, the sale of the video for 1,200 hryvnias cost the woman 37,565.60 hryvnias — more than 31 times the income received.

At the same time, the court ordered the return of the Motorola moto g06 and Xiaomi Redmi 14 phones, the SIM card and the bank card to her. The seizure previously imposed on the Motorola was lifted.

The verdict can still be appealed to the Odesa Court of Appeal within 30 days from the day it was pronounced.

And the theory about a possible “decoy buyer” did not arise out of nowhere. Korabelov.info has already written about real cases where law enforcement officers themselves bought porn content to document the crime. In 2023 an operative during a controlled purchase purchased content from a girl for 5,110 hryvnias.

In another case, police conducted as many as 7 operational purchases of webcam shows and spent 14,983 hryvnias of budget funds on them.

So the question of who the buyer for 1,200 hryvnias in the Khrystyna Balyk case really was remains unanswered. The verdict does not say a word about an operative purchase. But previous practice shows: situations where law enforcement themselves enter such accounts, agree to a purchase and pay for content to document a crime have already occurred in Ukraine.

Earlier we wrote:

• The Verkhovna Rada has begun the decriminalization of porn in Ukraine
• Law enforcement chase adult content while serious sexual crimes remain an issue
• Porn awaits a vote: the Ministry of Internal Affairs has already given the green light
• Decriminalization of porn: what exactly do they want to allow in Ukraine?
• One nude photo on a phone — almost 19,000 hryvnias fine