The adult smoking rate fell to 23 per cent in 2017 from 28.4 per cent seven years ago as Ukraine hiked the median pack price for cigarettes nearly 70 per cent and instituted a ban on smoking in public places, a WHO survey shows.

Among daily smokers, the smoking rate dropped 4.9 percentage points to 20.1 per cent, the latter number representing 7.2 million smokers. A sharp drop in the male smoking rate underpinned declines in both daily and occasional smoking, according to WHO’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey for Ukraine. The GATS surveyed 8,300 people aged 15 and older. Use of vaping devices was negligible, with only half those surveyed responding they had heard of the product.