• Karina, a 22-year-old from eastern Ukraine, is a surrogate pregnant with a Chinese couple’s embryo.
  • After her home in Bakhmut was destroyed, she moved to Kyiv and turned to paid surrogacy due to financial hardship.
  • She will earn £12,500, roughly double the average salary in Ukraine.
  • Ukraine’s parliament is considering a bill to tighten regulation of the surrogacy industry and ban access to foreigners.
  • Before the war, Ukraine was the second-largest commercial surrogacy hub after the US.
  • The bill has broad support in parliament, with critics arguing the industry exploits poor women.