Ukraine Parliament Considers Bill to Ban Foreigners from Surrogacy Industry

Karina Tarasenko, a 22-year-old woman from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine who is six months pregnant with a girl for a Chinese couple, said she plans to have as many surrogate babies as her body will allow to save up to buy a home. Her own home in Bakhmut was destroyed at age 17 when the city became one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds in the early phase of Russia's full-scale invasion.

Tarasenko and her partner moved to Kyiv after Bakhmut was largely destroyed.

She decided to become a surrogate after struggling to afford bread and nappies for her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter while in a shop one day. Tarasenko now lives on the outskirts of Kyiv in an apartment provided by her surrogacy clinic. She will earn £12,500 ($17,000) for the surrogacy, roughly double the average salary in Ukraine.

She had been due to receive £15,500 ($21,000) but her pay was cut after one of the twins she was pregnant with died, as stipulated in her contract. "At first, becoming a surrogate made me angry and disappointed, but now I've just accepted it," Tarasenko said. She rejects the idea that commercial surrogacy is exploitative.

"No-one is forcing us. This is my body, my decision... " Prior to the war, Ukraine was widely cited as the world's second commercial surrogacy hub behind the United States. Surrogacies in Ukraine have nearly bounced back to pre-war levels, experts have told the BBC.

Ukraine's parliament is considering a bill that would introduce stricter oversight of the surrogacy industry and effectively ban access to foreigners. Foreigners make up 95% of the intended parents in Ukraine's surrogacy industry. The bill has widespread support across Ukraine's parliament.

Dmytrieva believes surrogacy should be banned entirely in Ukraine. She pointed to social media advertising by clinics. An AI-generated advert posted by a clinic in January 2026 showed a woman forced to decide between buying wood to heat her stove or clothes for her children.

In 2021, BioTexCom Centre for Human Reproduction ran an advertising campaign promoting a "Black Friday sale" on surrogate babies. BioTexCom defended its adverts, saying they were effective in bringing attention to surrogacy. In 2018, the prosecutor's office launched an investigation into BioTexCom CEO Albert Tochilovsky and two other former members of staff on suspicion of offences including human trafficking.

The pre-trial investigation into Albert Tochilovsky and two others has been suspended to allow for international co-operation and gathering information from abroad. BioTexCom and Albert Tochilovsky say they always act within the law and categorically deny the allegations. The trafficking allegation investigated in 2018 involved a DNA mismatch between a set of parents and a baby.

BioTexCom says the DNA mismatch issue happened during sperm collection which took place in another country. Wei, a five-year-old boy born prematurely in 2021 with severe brain damage via surrogacy arranged through BioTexCom, now lives in a state-run home for disabled children in Kyiv.

His intended parents from a country in South East Asia chose not to collect him after learning about his condition and effectively disappeared.

Wei's surrogate mother did not want him and had no legal obligations to him under Ukrainian law. When the BBC visited, Wei was having mashed banana with his friends at the home. He cannot sit unaided, hold his head or see properly, and will require round-the-clock care for the rest of his life.

Fifteen families have viewed Wei's file but none has expressed an interest in adopting him. Valeria Soruchan from Ukraine's Health Ministry says "a lot" of children born through surrogacy are left behind. The Ukrainian government does not keep exact figures on children left behind after surrogacy.

Soruchan supports a ban on access for foreigners to surrogacy in Ukraine. When children are abandoned there is no legal obligation for clinics to contribute to the costs of keeping them in state-run homes. BioTexCom has not made a financial contribution to Wei's care.

BioTexCom's CEO Tochilovsky described what happened as a "tragedy", saying that when parents abandon a child, "we partly consider it our responsibility". Himatraj and Rajvir Bajwa from London paid around £65,000 ($87,770) to BioTexCom for surrogacy last year. Their son was born in June 2025 in Kyiv.

The couple spent the first three months of their son's life in Kyiv, in and out of a bomb shelter, before returning to England in late August 2025. "It was scary and surreal," Rajvir Bajwa said. The couple oppose the Ukrainian bill.

"They gave us something we never thought possible - they've made us a family," Himatraj Bajwa, 37, said. Tarasenko initially approached BioTexCom but chose not to proceed, feeling they had treated her coldly. Looking down at her stomach, she added: "I know this is not my child, but I love her.

I talk to her. When she kicks, I tell her that her parents are waiting for her. " The BBC reported these details.