There are between 52,000 to 83,000 women working as prostitutes in Ukraine, according to the International HIV and Aids Alliance. 11,000 prostitutes work in the capital Kiev.
“VIP” prostitutes in the country who are able to speak a foreign language charge between $124 to $248 (100 to 200 Eur0s).
Corrupt police charge brothel owners up to $1,000 for each phone line that is used for clients.
In 2012, Ukraine has the highest rate of HIV infection rate in Central Asia and Eastern Europe with at least 350,000 people living with HIV. Sexual intercourse has overtaken drug injection as the number one form of transmission.
24 percent of the prostitutes in Kiev are HIV positive.
Source: AFP, “Ukraine’s Sex Industry Bets on Euro 2012,” Jakarta Globe, May 30, 2012.
Custom officials in Ukraine seized over 120 million cigarettes that were being smuggled into the country in 2011. Officials report that 90 percent of the smuggled cigarettes seized was produced in Moldova.
Between 15 to 20 percent of all tobacco smoked in Ukraine were purchased illegally on the black market, causing a tax loss of $2 Billion per year.
Source: ”Ukraine customs see growth in tobacco products smuggling<,” Focus News, April 26, 2012.
The rate of cigarette smuggling in Romania decreased to 11.8 percent in September 2011, down from the 15.7 percent reported in the early summer of 2011. Tobacco smuggling is still down from the previous high of 30 percent in 2010.
The cigarettes that are smuggled into Romania originate from neighboring countries such as Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine.
Source: Otilia Haraga, “Tobacco excise tax collection totals EUR 1.27bln after Q3. Cigarette smuggling declines,” Business Review, October 11, 2011.
Cigarette smuggling in Ukraine led to 15 to 20 percent of all cigarettes smoked in the country to have entered through the black market without proper documentation and taxation.
Source: “Cigarette smuggling growing in Ukraine,” Kyiv Post, December 16, 2010.
Three doctors in Ukraine were arrested for selling the kidneys of human trafficking victims to wealthy buyers on the black market. The kidneys were sold for $100,000 to $200,000.
Source: Daryna Krasnolutska, “Ukraine Police Break Up International Ring Selling Kidneys for $200,000,” Bloomberg, October 15, 2010.
Between 1992 to 1997, approximately $32 Billion worth of military equipment and arms were stolen from Ukraine and trafficked around the world.
Source: UNODC, “The Globalization of Crime,” Chapter 6: Firearms, June 2010.
Human trafficking of women in Ukraine has moved some 420,000 women out of the country, according to a 2005 study.
Source: Olga Pyshchulina, “An Evaluation of Ukrainian Legislation to Counter and Criminalize Human Trafficking,” Human Traffic and Transnational Crime: Eurasian and American Perspectives, edited by Sally Stoecker and Louise Shelley, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005)
