Shocking moment mother, 20, is caught trying to sell her two-year-old son for £18,000 in Ukraine because she wanted to start her own business

Shocking footage shows the moment a mother is arrested after trying to sell her two-year-old son for £18,000 in Ukraine.

The woman, 20, from Dnipro, reportedly wanted to use the money ‘to start her own business’. 

The unnamed mother was detained when the buyer handed her cash, according to the country’s national police.

A video shows a police officer counting the money, and the detained mother being handcuffed.

A social worker is seen carrying the child to a waiting car to take the boy into care.

Today it was announced that the woman had been convicted of human trafficking against a minor, and imprisoned for eight years.

‘According to her, she did not want to take care of her son, so she decided to get rid of him,’ said a police statement.

The buyer was known to her, it was alleged.

‘She planned to open her own business with the money she received.

‘The crime was documented by the police departments of the migration police and the investigative department of the Main Police Department in Dnipropetrovsk region in cooperation with the criminal analysis department.’

The child was initially sent to doctors and is now in the care of social services.

‘She found a potential buyer, to whom she offered to hand over the minor for a cash payment of one million [Ukrainian] hryvnias [£18,000/$23,960],’ said the Dnipropetrovsk prosecutor’s office.

The woman had pleaded not guilty.

It comes after a Russian woman was arrested in 2019 amid claims she tried to sell her children ‘because they were an obstacle for dating men’. 

Rasulzhan Kyzy Barnokhon was caught after she tried to sell a week-old baby for £11,500 in the Russian capital, Moscow, police and activists said.

Barnokhon, who was 23 at the time, had come to the capital from the south-western city of Ufa and met her buyers, who collaborated with the police.

After receiving the equivalent of £11,512 for her one-week-old daughter, Barnokhon was arrested.

Police said this was the second time the mother had tried to sell her children. 

She was said to have made her first attempt six months prior – on that occasion trying to sell her older daughter, who was just one.

At the time, Barnokhon, who was already pregnant with her third child, posted a message on social media saying: ‘Looking for adoptive parents for a one-year-old girl. Moscow.’

The message was spotted by activists at NGO ‘Alternativa’ who fight human trafficking.

They responded to the post and found out that Barnokhon was going to sell her child.

Alternativa activist Yulia, who pretended to be a buyer, said: ‘She [Barnokhon] said that she met a man online and wanted to date him.

‘But before that, she wanted to sell her children who, according to her, were an ‘obstacle for dating men’.

‘She was not interested in the further fate of her children and told me that ‘after the deal is done, we do not know each other’.

According to activists, Barnokhon had changed her mind and refused to sell her daughter after being talked out of the deal by her relatives.

But six months later, after giving birth to her third child, Barnokhon contacted Yulia, it is claimed.

Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Yulia Ivanova said: ‘The criminal case on attempted sale of a minor was initiated against the 23-year-old. The suspect faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.’

A statement on the official website of the Russian Investigative committee said: ‘The woman wanted one million rubles for her newborn child.

‘On March 5, when she was in Moscow, she received the money and handed the baby to a buyer. She also wrote a note confirming that she had received the money for the baby.

‘During the police interrogation, the suspect admitted to the crime. There are no threats to the baby’s health.’