Some women have personal closed channels with reviews, video messages, and prices.
From 500,000 to 1.5 million rubles a week (5,000–15,000 euros) are earned by sex workers who come to the occupied territories of Ukraine. 99% of their clients are Russian soldiers who willingly spend their high salaries on women. Sex workers arrive at trenches, checkpoints, and saunas — often just to listen to soldiers and officers who no longer want to fight for 15,000 rubles an hour.
Mariana is 25 years old; she considers herself one of the first sex workers to swap Moscow, Sochi, and Krasnaya Polyana for a combat zone. She arrived in Luhansk in February 2023. The idea was suggested by an acquaintance, a pimp from the Krasnodar region: in the fall of 2022, he was mobilized, and just a couple of months later, he looked around and called with an offer: "There are many young men here, almost all the local girls over 18 have left, and soldiers need female attention and care more than anyone."
After working through the New Year holidays in Krasnaya Polyana, Mariana, four other girls, and their manager-pimp made it to Rostov, got on a bus, and headed to Luhansk. They passed checkpoints, military police, document checks, customs, and inspections of their belongings. "We said we were going to visit a friend, to friends, to husbands — everyone lied in whatever way they could. I didn’t even think about the fact that there were hostilities… that they could bomb…"
From the bus station, they went to pre-rented apartments arranged by the mobilized pimp — with cameras and security 24/7. They rested and "got into work." She remembers her first client well: "You know the song 'And I love beautiful, strong soldiers'... Well, that’s it... With the onset of the special military operation, there was such a vibe on TikTok and Reels... You look at them in those videos and think, wow, how cool... And then I open the door, and a 22-year-old guy walks into the apartment, handsome, an officer, with a higher education, just graduated, just arrived, all clean and shaved... We still keep in touch; he fell in love with me. He is still fighting," the girl recounts.
"Work" in Luhansk immediately "took off." "There turned out to be an immense number of willing participants. Some of the girls could take 10 clients for an hour and accept one 'night visitor' who stays until morning. I couldn’t manage that; I didn’t have the strength. 5–6 clients and a 'night visitor' was my maximum; that’s when my shift ended," says Mariana. She "worked" for two weeks — and then left for her hometown or abroad, "to recuperate." According to Mariana's estimates, at that time, there were no more than a dozen women involved in prostitution who had come to earn money from Russia in the entire Luhansk region.
I’ll Invite You Over. No Prepayments
By the fall of 2024, in the occupied regions, there are already at least three hundred women involved in prostitution. About a hundred work in "stationary brothels," while the others call themselves independents. "At first, they were afraid to come. But when they saw that they could earn one and a half million a week here, they started to think: 'Maybe it’s not so bad with the bombing...'" Mariana laughs. "When they realized that they could live and work here, even without a manager, and that there were houses with security and concierges, many people rushed here," confirms another professional, Alina.
Most sex workers come to the occupied regions "for a shift." Typically, they rent accommodation in Luhansk, Donetsk, Mariupol, Berdyansk, or Melitopol for a couple of weeks or a month.
"If in Moscow you can rent a decent studio for 5,000 a day, then in LPR and DPR for 5,000 a day you will only find a rundown shack," says Mariana. "The average price here is 8,000–10,000 for a well-furnished apartment." In the video that the interlocutor sends, there are gray-beige walls, curtains, a wide sofa, and new plumbing. These apartments, Mariana explains, were left by owners "on the other side of political views" to realtors who then left. Real estate agents themselves did repairs to rent them out at a higher price.
Clients are mostly found through Telegram chats. These can be dating groups, of which there are dozens in the messenger: "Dating/DPR CHAT," "Dating Donetsk DPR Girls," "Dating LPR Acknowledgments," and so on. Among the offers to "raise money on topics" and advertisements for services in these chats, there are indeed offers to "get acquainted," often from accounts with photos of men in military uniforms. Such messages from local women are rare, and more often direct advertisements from prostituted women are published — "Donetsk, freedom," "Passing through Starobilsk? Juicy MBR in your car," "Meetings, hotel. No prepayments."
There are also channels that publish exclusively advertisements from sex workers and "agencies" — "Meetings LPR," "Meetings DPR, Meetings Donetsk," and so on. They post standard "profiles" with emojis and bright fonts: several photos, prices for sex and "additional services," as well as contact information. Some women have personal closed channels with reviews, video messages, and prices; others even run something like lifestyle blogs.
One of the soldiers says that older comrades help him find women: "Sometimes you don’t even need to go to Telegram. There will always be someone nearby who definitely has a dozen ready and verified numbers of local nymphets. This was especially true for married people. Here, they generally start some kind of wild sex marathon when they get a free minute."
But not everyone can quickly satisfy their sexual needs. Private Mikhail says that he is currently in the trenches, has no car, and the nearest settlement is 15 kilometers away — and it’s small. "I want someone to call, bring them right away, roughly speaking, here are the girls, here’s the money. Pick one, take her away, step aside, or start something. Well, you understand what I mean?" Mikhail did not inquire about who exactly organizes prostitution. "In general, the principle here is: you get to any city, you get to any bathhouse, order through a taxi driver — they bring her. Who transports them doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that they brought her, exhausted her — and that’s it. Well, rather, not exhausted, but rested — and that’s it."
