The 2024 seasonal time change will be the last. Ukraine adopted the law

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine voted for a bill to abolish the transition from summer to winter time and vice versa, supporting it with a total of 261 deputies. In March 2024, the Rada was unable to make this decision, but the current attempt was successful.

This decision means that Ukrainians will have to set their clocks back one hour for the last time this fall, on the last Sunday of October (27th) 2024. In the future, Ukraine will remain on winter time, eliminating the need for an annual clock change.

This is not the first time that the topic of canceling the time transition in Ukraine has been raised. The arguments in favor of this decision were the impact on human health and the unproven economic efficiency of time change. The time change is traditionally carried out on weekends to give the human body time to adapt. Research has indicated that changing clocks can cause sleep deprivation, which in turn contributes to an increase in depression and cardiovascular disease.

The discussion about the appropriateness of seasonal time in Ukraine has been going on for many years. Apart from the questionable economic impact and health risks, there are several arguments for not changing the clocks.

For most of Ukraine, winter time (UTC+2) is natural and better corresponds to the biological rhythms of the population. Only Luhansk, partially Donetsk, Kharkov and Transcarpathian regions are in other time zones, andthe difference between the western and eastern points of the country is about 68 minutes.

What experts say about it:

In the eastern regions in summer there will be sun at three in the morning. Yes, during curfew. And after the war too… VR steals an hour of time on summer, spring and autumn evenings from each of us. Both in the east and in the west of Ukraine. Because the vast majority of Ukrainians wake up after hours, that is, later than the sun…

Currently, about 60 countries continue to change their clocks twice a year, most of them in Europe. It was assumed that EU countries would change the time for the last time in 2021, but this reform has not yet been adopted. According to a 2018 study, almost 85% of Europeans surveyed opposed changing the time.