A scheme involving illegal surrogacy for foreigners was uncovered in Kyiv, in which a woman was recruited into a program that violated the law. According to the investigation, she gave birth to twins after the embryos were transferred, but the children later died in hospital. The Prosecutor General’s Office reported this, UNN writes.
Under the procedural supervision of prosecutors from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the director of a private Kyiv reproductive technology medical center was notified of suspicion of recruiting a person for the purpose of exploitation, committed through deception and the exploitation of the victim’s vulnerable state, by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy (Part 2 of Article 149 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)
According to the investigation, in November 2025, together with the program’s coordinator and medical workers, he organized an illegal commercial surrogacy program for a foreign married couple.
A Ukrainian woman was recruited to participate; due to a lack of permanent employment and difficult financial circumstances, she was in a vulnerable state. According to the investigation, the terms of the contract were concealed from her, including fines of up to USD 30,000, a ban on leaving Ukraine without the foreign couple’s permission, and other restrictions that placed her in a dependent position.
The investigation established that the foreign couple were admitted to the assisted reproductive technology program without the mandatory medical examination. The surrogate mother also did not undergo a proper examination, and the surrogacy agreement was not notarized.
Despite this, embryos were transferred to the woman, after which she became pregnant with twins. The children were born prematurely and later died in hospital.
According to the investigation, the woman’s reproductive function was used for commercial purposes to generate profit from the foreign couple.
The medical center’s director was detained while traveling toward Ukraine’s state border. At the prosecutor’s request, the court ordered him to be held in custody, with the alternative of posting bail of nearly UAH 15 million.