LOUISE CALLAGHAN IN KYIV

Ukraine surrogates fear ban on births for foreigners

Wealthy couples are still paying women in the war-torn country to carry their babies

Yelena is one of 140 surrogates at the Kyiv clinic who are 12 weeks pregnant
Yelena is one of 140 surrogates at the Kyiv clinic who are 12 weeks pregnant
SUNDAY TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL
The Sunday Times

In the sun-dappled lobby of a Kyiv fertility clinic, dozens of Ukrainian women in various stages of pregnancy were reading magazines, scrolling through their phones and waiting for routine scans.

They had come here from their homes in Chernihiv, Dnipro and Lviv. But the children growing inside them were Chinese, Indian, British and French.

The women are just some of the hundreds of Ukrainians who have chosen to become surrogates for foreign couples since war began in February last year — earning between £15,000 and £20,000 each.

Alona, 26, who is five months pregnant, said she didn’t know the names of the British couple whose child she was carrying. “I like that I can help them find happiness,” she said. “And of course financially it