Is Caffeine legal in Ukraine?

Legal status

Governed in Ukraine as a food ingredient rather than as a scheduled substance. Record UKR-24 reports that Постанова № 770, таблиці I to IV, consolidated text read on 20 September 2026, was searched and no narcotics or psychotropic heading was accepted for caffeine, and that the controls which do apply are the Ukrainian food safety and labelling rules on composition, declaration and the warnings required on high caffeine drinks. The finding is that a different regime governs. The absence of a narcotics heading is a negative record from one reading of the list and not an independent confirmation, and the source names no specific food safety instrument, so none is cited here. Caffeine also appears as an ingredient in medicines, which are governed by the medicines law rather than by this row. Qualify the negative half. The narcotics check logs "caffeine" and the same word in capitals, both Latin, against an annex recorded as printed in Cyrillic, so it could not have matched a Cyrillic heading whatever the true position. The food ingredient finding stands on its own footing and does not rest on that search.

Consequences if caught

Capital exposure: none. Ukrainian law provides no death penalty, and the narcotics ceiling the source states, twelve years of imprisonment under Кримінальний кодекс України, стаття 307, does not reach caffeine because record UKR-24 accepted no heading for it. Наказ МОЗ № 188 has no band for it for the same reason. Exposure under the food regime is regulatory rather than criminal in the ordinary case, running to labelling, composition and marketing requirements enforced administratively, and this source reproduces none of those provisions or their penalties. No figure from another country's food law is carried over here. Separately from that, and carried forward from this site's published Ukraine entry rather than re-derived from the Code in this pass, the published penalties are these. Personal use of a small amount is administrative under article 44 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, a fine of 25 to 50 tax free minimum incomes, 20 to 60 hours of community service, or administrative arrest of up to 15 days. Above small, personal use under article 309 is criminal, a fine, correctional labour of up to two years, or restriction of liberty of up to five years, rising to up to three years where aggravated or large and up to eight years where a minor is involved. Trafficking or sale under article 307 draws four to twelve years with property forfeiture. Smuggling under article 305 draws five to eight years, and up to eight to ten years aggravated. The published entry records the small, large and especially large quantity thresholds as very low, and that trace amounts have triggered article 309. Drug use itself, other than in public, is not criminal there. Every figure in this paragraph is a penalty range or a fine and none of them is a quantity threshold. This row is placed outside the narcotics regime, so they are recorded as Ukraine's published drug penalties and not as this substance's exposure.

If prescribed or medical

The Ukrainian rule this source states at country level, no personal use allowance, criminal grading under наказ МОЗ № 188 and compliance with Закон України «Про лікарські засоби» for a scheduled medicine, does not engage on this row, because the placement recorded is a separate regime finding under record UKR-24 with no accepted narcotics heading. A caffeine containing medicine is handled as a medicine and a caffeine containing drink as a food. The customs and quantity rules for bringing food supplements into Ukraine were not established in this source and were not researched, so they are not stated here.

Documentation

Carry high dose caffeine supplements in their retail packaging with the ingredient declaration and the dose per unit visible, because the Ukrainian controls on this substance are food composition and labelling controls and an undeclared bulk powder is the case they are written for. Carry the pharmacy label for any medicine that contains caffeine as an ingredient. Record UKR-24 establishes only that no narcotics heading was accepted; it does not state a permitted quantity, so confirm the current food supplement import rules before travelling with bulk material. The narcotics list was read on 20 September 2026.

Drug laws and enforcement change and vary within a country. This is not legal advice. Always confirm with Ukraine’s embassy or official drug authority before traveling; penalties can be severe, including imprisonment.