Tobacco control policies in Ukraine: history, public health impact, and current priorities

Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Eastern Europe, with a higher smoking prevalence among men and considerably lower smoking prevalence among women in comparison to Western Europe. Since 2005 Ukraine has adopted national tobacco control policies based on the WHO FCTC recommendations. In the last years anti-tobacco advocacy campaigns are mostly driven by non-governmental organizations in Ukraine. However, despite the reduction of tobacco products’ affordability, driven by a significant increase of tobacco taxes and an economic recession, the price of cigarettes in Ukraine is still one of the lowest in the world. In addition, the lack of political will and tobacco industry interference have led to an absence of new non-price tobacco control laws in the last five years. Robust political leadership, and greater collaboration of the authorities with civil society are needed for Ukraine to progress towards comprehensive WHO FCTC implementation; the development of a national plan to prevent smoking initiation among children and teenagers, wider promotion of national smoking cessation service, and the implementation of a code of conduct for avoiding tobacco industry interference while setting public health tobacco control policies.