Conflict and illicit drug markets in Ukraine

This article explores illicit drug markets in Ukraine and whether they have been impacted by Russia's February 2022 invasion. It uses quantitative data from national law enforcement agencies and forensic services to analyse trends in drug-related seizures and arrests. This information is used as a proxy for market size and product change and is triangulated with qualitative information from expert interviews ( N = 47) in the strategically important oblast (province) of Kharkiv on the eastern border with Russia. Kharkiv is employed as a single, ‘thick’ case study appropriate to a conflict situation in which ‘the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident’. The findings point to conditions of war reconfiguring transcontinental cocaine and heroin trafficking away from Ukraine, the substitution of plant-based, imported drugs with domestically manufactured synthetics, and new user cultures and cohorts in Ukrainian drug markets, including military personnel. HIV treatment provision has shown resilience and conflict conditions have triggered national debate on drug policy reform. These changes have implications for crime, policing and public health in Ukraine.