Ukraine tightens tobacco and nicotine legislation, moves closer to European standards

Since July 11, the production and sale of manufactured cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes has been banned in Ukraine. This new regulation, which brings the country's regulations closer to European Union standards, does not, however, include heated tobacco or hookah. Despite a still high level of tobacco prevalence, Ukraine is making significant progress in its health situation, thanks to the implementation of ambitious and proven policies.[1].

With 24% of smoking prevalence and 130,000 annual deaths linked to tobacco consumption in Ukraine, the ban on flavoured manufactured cigarettes is part of a public health logic, since 22% of Ukrainian smokers are consumers of tobacco products and flavoured cigarettes. As elsewhere, the consumption of flavoured tobacco primarily affects adolescents and women, the tobacco industry's preferred targets for this category of products. Similarly, electronic cigarettes are much more consumed by the younger generations than by the rest of the population. Indeed, electronic cigarette consumption only concerns 3% of Ukrainian adults, but 20% of adolescents aged 13 to 15. The success of electronic cigarettes among the younger generations can be explained in part by the flavours.

A text developed from the regulatory framework of the European Union

Ukraine is considering adopting a ban on flavourings for tobacco products, but the ban is incomplete, since it does not apply to heated tobacco products or hookah tobacco. This is because the European regulation was built in light of the 2014 European Tobacco Products Directive, which introduced a complete ban on flavourings for cigarettes and rolling tobacco, thereby excluding electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco, which were only introduced on the market after the directive. Harmonising the regulation for all tobacco products is one of the challenges of the current revision of the European directive.

Ukraine's proactive anti-smoking policy

In order to meet European standards, Ukraine has been implementing a series of measures for over ten years to significantly reduce tobacco consumption among the population. Thus, since Ukraine ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Ukrainian government has implemented a strong tax policy, which has increased the price of a packet of tobacco by 27 in ten years, at the same time increasing tobacco-related tax revenues by 12, while reducing the number of smokers by 40%. This tax policy was renewed from 2017, introducing increases of 20% in the price of a packet until 2025. Similarly, while heated tobacco is not affected by the ban on flavors, Ukraine is one of the first countries to have implemented a dissuasive tax policy on these products, based on taxation of these products per unit, as almost all anti-smoking stakeholders recommend.

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[1] The World, Ukrainian smoking legislation moves closer to EU standards, 07/21/2023, (accessed 07/24/2023)

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