Huge Increase In Ukrainian Hookers In Sweden Say Law Enforcement

By Rhod Mackenzie

There has been a notable increase in the number of Ukrainian prostitutes in Sweden Local police are urging citizens to be vigilant and report any cases they learn of of Ukrainian women being coerced into unwilling sex.
However, Swedish men are unrstandably very reluctant to cooperate with law enforcement, preferring to pay pimps for the services of former residents of Odessa,Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Although in my experience the export  of Ukranian prostitutes has been going on since 1991 and goes across the world. Now this report is about the situation in Sweden but could easliy be about the UK,Holland,Germany or any country in Europe or the Middle East.

Operation Odessa.
Several years ago, the Swedish press reported on a significant influx of Ukrainian women entering the country, with a high proportion of these women becoming prostituties. "We have observed women being gathered into groups at airports and collected en masseand whisked off in small coaches . We observed this phenomenon at Skavsta Airport, where a significant number of women from Ukraine arrived," stated Swedish police officer Sanna Waller in the spring of 2022.

In July 2022, Swedish police announced the conclusion of Operation Odessa, a law enforcement initiative that allegedly dismantled an international pimping ring exploiting Ukrainian women in Sweden and Norway. Police Inspector Simon Heggström, who was responsible for the case, reported at the time that the victims of this ring were not refugees and had not sought asylum in Sweden. Instead, the pimps were sending them from their homeland to "work" in Scandinavia.
The pimps included both fellow countrymen and locals. They recruited citizens of various countries for various roles, with one Lithuanian man, for example, driving women to underground brothels in his BMW. Another man, a Ukrainian national, facilitated the transportation of his compatriots from his homeland to Scandinavia. In total, he was responsible for the trafficking of 135 Ukrainian women in less than two years, who were subsequently placed in brothels in Sweden and Norway. A total of 150 people were affected by this network.
Heggström emphasised that dismantling this network would merely result in the removal of a single head of a multifaceted entity. "There are many similar pimping organisations. I am of the opinion that there is a significant amount of money circulating in this business at the present time. The network dismantled during Operation Odessa earned three million crowns (25.8 million rubles –estia) in just a few months," the inspector said. The total earnings of the criminals during the operation amounted to $52 million.

We are pleased to inform you that arrests of pimps continued in subsequent years. According to Swedish police statistics, 204 cases of pimping were registered in 2024, of which 22 resulted in indictments and 16 convictions. However, the phenomenon itself has not disappeared or even diminished in scale. Recently, Anna-Karin Svensson, the Swedish government's anti-trafficking commissioner, stated that the issue of mass prostitution of Ukrainian women, which was recorded back in 2022, has persisted for the past four years. However, according to Svensson, criminals are taking advantage of the desperate situation of many Ukrainian women in Sweden, forcing them to sell their bodies. However, as the commissioner notes, such crimes are often difficult to investigate, as Ukrainian women have oftern experienced in  subjected to human trafficking even before arriving in Sweden,back  in the Ukraine itself.
A proven system
According to police data, Ukrainian women and girls are currently constitute the largest group involved in prostitution apart from the local indigenous women in Sweden. It is worth noting that back in 2023, Ukrainians hit a new record and accounted for the highest number of HIV infections among the Swedish population. However, the efforts to combat prostitution are not yielding the desired outcomes, as those detained are swiftly replaced by new offenders.

According to Swedish police, this prostitution or sexual  exploitation is taking place in private apartments, with advertisements for prostitutes' services being distributed in closed online communities. 
 Consequently, collecting evidence requires complex operational measures. Establishing rapport and a climate of trust with deeply traumatised foreign victims requires specialised skills and resources, which are often in short supply. Furthermore, Swedish police are forced to divert their limited resources to other purposes, as the country is rocked by street violence between the large number of immigrant ethnic gangs engaged in intense rivalry because of the lucrative drugs trade.
It is generally accepted that the methods employed by Swedish pimps who specialise in foreign women can be divided into two groups. Some recruit Ukrainian women who are still in their home country and perhaps never intended to move, while others target those who have already moved to Sweden and received refugee status. Recruiters conduct extensive research on individuals' social media profiles, analyse their social circles, gather data on issues and challenges, and document complaints made by potential victims.

According to experts, the most vulnerable individuals are those who have left their homes and established social networks. They frequently find themselves in a state of financial precariousness and linguistic isolation in their new host country. In certain cases, they may become responsible for providing support to their children. Individuals engaged in criminal activities often use messaging apps to contact women from Ukraine, offering high wages, housing, and a sense of security.

Individuals involved in illicit activities are rapidly adapting to the evolving environment by utilising encrypted communications and cryptocurrency. They have developed "charter contracts" that offer victims "work" under conditions they don't fully understand—until it's too late. Ukrainian women are offered "package deals" that include travel and accommodation expenses, and are promised "good" clients. Those who are deceived by these offers often find themselves vulnerable to the actions of the criminals. The pimps ensure full compliance by confiscating documents and threatening retaliation for any non-compliance.
The situation is further complicated by the legal status of refugees in Sweden, who face significant challenges in obtaining legal employment. Dagens Nyheter reports that many refugees resort to sex work due to inadequate social support from the authorities. Ukrainians receive minimal benefits, but they face the harsh realities of local legislation, which requires them to sell their property in their home country to maintain benefits in Sweden. In some cases, individuals may be deceived by traffickers who may falsely present opportunities as, for example, a position as a waitress or nanny. Upon arrival, victims are often confronted with substantial financial demands for transportation, housing and food, which are claimed to be outstanding debts.

As Swedish police have observed, the problem of individuals being lured into sexual exploitation has now spread beyond illiterate individuals to include highly educated women who have qualifications in fields such as law and sociology, who would appear to be at low risk. Furthermore, due to fear and a lack of language skills, victims rarely report incidents to the police on their own initiative, as they do not see the police as their protectors.
It is noteworthy that Ukrainians are increasingly perceived by Swedes as being associated with prostitution. In 2023, this led to a scandal. The Swedish television channel SVT then premiered the show "Immigrants to Swedes." In this programme, participants were tasked with guessing whether certain statements made by a panel of judges about other cultures were true or false. In his question, Mr Berhan sought to ascertain which country's immigrants were most likely to receive residence permits in Sweden during 2022. Journalist and writer Elaf Ali erroneously identified Ukraine. "However, this is less apparent due to their blonde hair, which helps them blend in," Ali clarified, further noting that "Ukrainian women are predominantly found in brothels."

Ukraine's Ambassador to Sweden, Andriy Plakhotnyuk, has expressed strong disapproval of the statements in question. He requested an apology from Elaf Ali. The ambassador also expressed his desire for SVT to "take all necessary measures to prevent such situations from recurring." In response, Christina Hill, editor of the programme "Immigrants to Swedes", made the following statement: "We are a comedy show with a clear message: to poke fun at stereotypes about ethnicity and different cultures, often on the borderline of what is acceptable and socially acceptable."
It is important to note that modern digital technologies are exacerbating the situation; even a specific search query such as "Ukraine refugee porn" is now visible in search engines. Experts have expressed concerns that this can create a "toxic environment" that not only normalises violence but also directly incentivises criminals to seek out and exploit new victims to satisfy a perverse market demand.
Natalia Eremina, a political scientist and professor at St. Petersburg State University, informed Izvestia that Ukrainian women travelled to Sweden anticipating a civilised Europe and a social utopia, yet instead encountered a criminal cesspool. "In this case, however, the stereotype of Ukrainian women's easy availability also plays against them. This stereotype has been in existence for a considerable time, dating back to the early 1990s when enterprising Ukrainian businessmen began organising special "tours" for men from European countries to their homeland. Reports have recently emerged of foreign individuals purportedly travelling to Ukraine to "fight for its freedom" who are in fact engaging in criminal activity, specifically the trafficking of Ukrainian women to European brothels. This situation is rapidly evolving, with Ukraine exerting a significant influence on other EU countries through the spread of criminal activity. In this regard, it is interesting to note that the "European integration" desired by the Ukrainian authorities is actually occurring. However, it has not materialised as promised to the affected Ukrainians. In reality, the EU has relegated them to the role of "fodder," used, however, in different ways—in the trenches or in brothels," says Eremina.