KHARKIV, Ukraine—The war in ukraine attracted a wide range of Western volunteers to the country, from frontline soldiers to aid workers delivering desperately needed supplies.
But one Instagram influencer from Houston, Texas, who moved to Ukraine when the war broke out, is the only one to describe herself as a “spiritual stripper.”
Volunteering with Ukraine’s heroes has led to a series of intimate relationships—mostly with Ukrainian soldiers—and Fan-Pei Koung, 33, now considers himself a “sex tourist.”
Koung used his social media presence to create a OnlyFans . account it’s free for Ukrainian soldiers, volunteers and local civilians, who she thinks can be used to cheer.
On the website, she calls herself “the girlfriend who runs around the world, currently volunteering in Kharkiv.” She added that she creates content about “everything from giving free breast milk to soldiers and volunteers,” to making donations to distribute to volunteers.
The OnlyFans model wore her hair in a messy bun and wore glasses when she met The Daily Beast in late July at her apartment in Kharkhiv. “I am a sexy girl in Ukraine who wants to volunteer, and will probably give up,” she said.
When Koung visited Ukraine for the first time in November 2022, romantic relationships were not her focus. She decided to volunteer in women’s shelters and orphanages in Lviv, city in western Ukraine the place was considered “paradise” during the war.
Away from the eastern front, the city evaded some of the war’s most brutal attacks. Koung recently moved to Europe, where she believes she can start a new life, away from all her problems in America. She met a Ukrainian family in Croatia who talked to her about the Russian invasion and encouraged her to volunteer in the country.
“Everybody tells me, ‘Don’t go, don’t go.’ When you’re a foreigner here, anyone who cares about you will say anything to make you change your mind,” she said.
Back in the US, Koung said she’s lived “many lives,” including winning first prize at the 2014 NASA Space Health Challenge, being postponed to an Ivy League school, and participating in the Miss Taiwan American pageant. For the past five years in Oakland, CA, Koung has worked in children’s events.
Fan-Pei Koung identifies himself as a “sex tourist” with a free OnlyFans account for Ukrainian soldiers.
Courtesy Fan-Pei Koung
When she started volunteering with children in Ukraine, the work seemed like a natural step forward. “Orphans overwhelm me. They ran, screamed and hugged me, and I rehearsed some Ukrainian to speak to them. We danced together,” she told The Daily Beast.
But the childcare role was not enough for Koung. “It doesn’t look like anything unique compared to what I’ve had in the United States. I want more. I want to be in the military,” she said.
A month after arriving in Ukraine, Koung left, but outside of the country, she still couldn’t stop thinking about Ukraine.
“I had a flight to Tulum [Mexico] because I’m going to live with this other sexy, glamorous, Asian influencer, and we’re going to form a team of amazing, glamorous, dreamy Asian influencers,” she burst out laughing before continuing, “But as soon as I left, I really wanted to go back to Ukraine. I lost my mind trying to go back.
Koung has over 50,000 followers on Instagram and has built a platform as an influencer, posting anything from lingerie model photos to meme videos of her daily life.
Since first visiting Ukraine in November 2022, Koung has also started posting war-related content. “I have lost about 5,000 followers since this Ukraine incident. Because I went from being a sexy influencer to a sexy influencer who talks about Ukraine all the time.”
‘Non-stop Shitshow’
In February 2023, a year after the war, Koung moved to Ukraine full-time, where she volunteered and lived among Ukrainians in the capital, Kiev. The longer Koung stayed in Ukraine, the more she began to enjoy the company of Ukrainians.
On a romantic level, Koung says in the US, “My standards are too high because I only want men who can take care of themselves and think of others but themselves. None of them [Americans] meet my standards. And then I went to Ukraine, and everyone here thinks about other people but themselves.”
“Ukrainian men, they treat me like a baby. They need to know what I want even before I know what I want. I’ve never been treated like that in my life,” Koung said.
In Kyiv, Koung met her then-personal trainer, the first man in Ukraine with whom she had a close relationship. Koung said: “He carried my 50-pound luggage up 13 floors during the power outage.
Since then, Koung’s volunteering has brought her to the eastern Donbas region, where she delivers water to those left in destroyed towns and does what she describes as “a spiritual supporter for English-speaking soldiers.”
And—when there is mutual attraction—Koung may begin romantic relationships with some of the men she meets. Currently, the OnlyFans model is dating a Ukrainian drone operator, a power plant worker and two IT workers.
“It really makes a difference if you are a man or a woman.“
Koung is learning Ukrainian and says she can speak at the level of a 2-year-old. However, artificial intelligence still comes in handy when she can’t communicate effectively with Ukrainians.
For example, a man named Sasha, “Speaks only Ukrainian and Russian so we just put our phones next to each other and we just translate into that language, and where he doesn’t understand, I’ll explain it to him. His ideal contact is two phones and a laptop. We can get whatever we need that way,” she said.
Sometimes, Koung also dates international soldiers who come to Ukraine from other countries to fight. After a group of soldiers suffered casualties in Donbas, Koung went to their unit to comfort them. There, she met a soldier from the United Kingdom who fought in Syria before moving to Ukraine.
Koung said she is dating a Ukrainian drone operator, a power plant worker and two IT workers.
Courtesy Fan-Pei Koung
“I was there talking to him for six hours about how he copes, the problems in his relationship. I feel very safe with this guy. Sometimes I hugged him and stroked his hair, he said: ‘I feel precious like a kitten. I haven’t been touched in two years,” Koung said.
But despite Koung’s sometimes lightheadedness during her time in Ukraine, she told The Daily Beast she has experienced judgment from other Western volunteers about her activities.
After being added to a volunteer group chatting with Westerners, Koung claimed to have written a message that read: “Hi, I’m Fan-Pei, thanks for inviting me to this humanitarian group chat. If any of you want to go east, take me with you, I’m good,” before joking that she wanted to have a close relationship with some famous Ukrainian.
“These guys tore me to pieces for three days in a row! I think there were a few hundred people in this group and they were like, ‘You want to turn mass graves into porn? People are writing reports about how willing they are to discipline me. I just wanted to prove myself, but this has haunted me. I feel like every volunteer in the humanitarian group has an opinion about me,” said Koung.
“If I were a man who came to Ukraine to volunteer, nobody would ask me anything. But since I’m a girl, it’s a damn show that doesn’t stop. It was a trip. It really makes a difference if you’re a man or a woman,” she added.
