YouTube monetization is not available in your country: what Facebook offers instead

Updated 24.09.2026 · Kostas Obuchow

YouTube stopped monetization for creators in Russia in 2022–2024 and paused it for Belarus-based accounts in December 2024. Where the YouTube Partner Program works, which countries Facebook Content Monetization covers, why a VPN is a way to lose the money, and what legal options remain.

Short answer

The YouTube Partner Program works only in listed countries. Russia and Belarus are not among them: in Russia monetization was stopped in stages from 2022 to 2024, and in December 2024 Google paused monetization for Belarus-based accounts. Ukraine, Poland and Kazakhstan are on the list.

Facebook Content Monetization has its own list, and it is stricter. Ukraine and Poland are on it; Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are not. And Facebook checks where you live and where the financial accounts linked to the page are.

There is no way around this through a VPN or someone else’s account. Both platforms treat that as a violation, and it usually ends with frozen money. The legal options are licensing your videos to a page that has monetization, or moving.

Where YouTube monetization works

YouTube keeps an official list of countries and regions where the Partner Program is available. Russia and Belarus are not on it. Ukraine, Poland and Kazakhstan are.

A detail for Ukraine and Kazakhstan: the lower tier of the programme, from 500 subscribers, is not listed for them. That tier does not give ad revenue anyway, only fan funding and Shopping. Ad revenue starts from the full threshold: 1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 watch hours in 12 months or 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. From 1 February 2027, for new channels: 8,000 hours or 20 million Shorts views.

Russia and Belarus: what happened

Russia, in three steps, per YouTube’s own help pages:

• March 2022: YouTube stopped serving ads to viewers in Russia, and creators stopped earning on views from Russia. Views from other countries still earned;
• in the same month, new sign-ups to the programme for creators in Russia were paused;
• August 2024: Russia-based AdSense accounts were shut down. Creators “will not be able to monetize any YouTube channels” linked to them.

We found no later change up to September 2026.

Belarus: on 13 December 2024 Google announced it would stop new account sign-ups in Belarus and pause monetization for Belarus-based AdSense accounts. YouTube’s own help pages do not mention Belarus separately; the source is Google’s publisher policy notices.

Which countries Facebook covers

Facebook Content Monetization has its own list of eligible countries. Ukraine and Poland are on it. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are not. Russian and Ukrainian are among the supported languages.

Two conditions that matter more than the list:

• you must live in an eligible country, and the financial entities linked to the account must be located there too;
• the programme is invitation-only. Even in an eligible country there is no application button.

Creator Fast Track, Meta’s accelerated entry for creators from other platforms, works only for those based in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.

What does not work

“Monetization via VPN” is one of the common search suggestions, next to a foreign payment account and someone else’s documents. We do not describe how, and here is why:

• both platforms check residency and payment details, and a mismatch is a violation of the programme terms;
• the loss comes at the worst moment: when payouts have built up, not when you start;
• on Facebook a violation stays with the account and the pages linked to it, not only with one video.

What does work

1. Licensing your videos to a page with monetization. Viewers do not have to be in your country, and the page does not have to be yours. Your videos can be published by a page whose owner lives in an eligible country, under a contract with revenue share. The rights to the videos stay with you. This is the same model TV studios use with distributors.

2. Moving. Monetization follows residency and payment accounts, not passport. For some authors this is the only route that keeps both programmes.

3. Revenue that does not depend on a programme. Direct advertising deals and sponsorships are not tied to the partner programme’s country list.

How to bring videos to Facebook without an originality flag is in the YouTube-to-Facebook breakdown. How Facebook and YouTube compare per thousand views is in Facebook vs YouTube.