98Despite Ukraine’s declared commitment to strengthening tobacco and nicotine control measures and fulfilling its international obligations under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), in 2024 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law that legalized remote (distance) sales of tobacco and nicotine products in Ukraine. This created conditions for increased accessibility of these products, including among children and adolescents.
The experience of other countries and the provisions of the WHO FCTC unequivocally confirm that remote sales of tobacco products constitute a form of sales promotion, while their prohibition is one of the most effective tools for protecting public health, particularly the health of children and young people.
Until 2024, Law of Ukraine No. 481/95-VR prohibited the sale of tobacco products in undefined places, which in practice excluded their sale through online stores via remote trade.
Despite the position of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and numerous warnings from public health experts, on 18 June 2024 the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law of Ukraine No. 3817-IX, which entered into force on 27 July 2024. One of its key innovations was a provision allowing the remote sale of tobacco and nicotine products using electronic means of communication. This step contradicts the MPOWER policies and the provisions of the WHO FCTC, as it significantly expands access to these products—particularly for children and adolescents—and undermines state efforts to reduce tobacco and nicotine dependence.
The legalization of remote sales of tobacco and nicotine products was initiated by Danylo Hetmantsev, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy. Despite proposals from the Committee on Public Health to remove the relevant provisions and retain the sale of tobacco products exclusively at physical points of sale, during consideration of the draft law in the профильному комітеті the need for remote sales was justified by arguments about protecting legal business and combating the illicit market.
At the same time, these arguments failed to take into account the lack of effective age-verification mechanisms. Civil society monitoring recorded cases of tobacco products being sold to minors in online supermarkets without age checks, while data from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology show that only 2.8% of consumers make purchases remotely—calling into question the economic rationale for such changes.
In a publication on the updated Tobacco Tactics platform, we explain how remote sales of tobacco and nicotine products were introduced in Ukraine, who initiated these changes, and how they contradict international recommendations under the WHO FCTC and MPOWER policies.
We recall that actions taken in the interests of the tobacco industry violate Article 4 of the Law of Ukraine “On Measures to Prevent and Reduce the Use of Tobacco Products and Their Harmful Effects on Public Health” and Ukraine’s international obligations under the ratified WHO FCTC. Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC states: “In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.”
Tobacco Tactics is a project of the Advocacy Center ‘Life’, an information and thematic resource dedicated to the strategies and tactics used by the tobacco industry to influence public health policymaking in Ukraine, particularly in the field of tobacco control.