The situation in the fight against the pandemic in Ukraine just before the war was improving

Purpose: The aim of the article is to compare the efficiency of pandemic management in two conflicting countries - Russia and Ukraine. The thesis about the superiority of Russia over Ukraine in terms of many social and economic factors seemed obvious. Reality measured with logically defined data contradicts this thesis. The use of statistical data ended on the day the war began. Design/methodology/approach: Each of the two considered countries was treated as an administrative structure divided into regions (oblasts). It was assumed that the quality of regional management by the central authority should be assessed on the basis of fair and equal treatment of all regions. This assessment was made for two statistical factors - the number of deaths and the number of vaccinations, whose distribution in the country was assessed according to the Gini index. Findings: Just before the war broke out – in February 2021, indicators of efficient pandemic management in the regions were better for Ukraine than for Russia. Ukraine recovered from the pandemic faster. This is a rather unexpected result. The article justifies the historical background of the centuries-old social and political relations between Russia and Ukraine, also using the position of Poland in these relations. Research limitations/implications: The presented research, together with its methodology, can be repeated for any administrative structure (state, group of countries), regions, cities, etc. An obvious requirement for conducting such research is the availability of reliable data on deaths and vaccinations. Practical implications: The method can be used to assess the efficiency of pandemic management at any administrative level (states, regions, groups of cities, etc.). Originality/value: An important novelty and the result of the research is the discovery of the Ukrainian organizational advantage in the fight against the pandemic just before the outbreak of the war. Keywords: Ukraine's war with Russia, COVID-19, vaccinations, pandemic deaths, pandemic management. Category of the paper: Research paper.