“…The topic of high mortality rates in post-Soviet countries has likewise interested many European scientists, but the specifics of such studies are often comparative (Pizzato et al, 2021). Research often compares medical and demographic indicators of Poland and Ukraine (Dubrovina et al, 2020;Grshybowskyj et al, 2019;Lyubinets et al, 2021;Zapadniuk, 2017), with much of the research being devoted to the impact of Ukraine's demographic problems on its economic development associated with both significant natural population and migratory decline (Ivanova, 2018;Kravets, 2021;Slabkiy et al, 2019). Although geographers significantly contribute to the study of population mortality and demographic issues in spatial terms (Niemets, 2018;Santalova, 2018), it was a team of Polish scientists that described the impact of concentrations of pollutants in the air on mortality in Podlaskie voivodeship compared with western Ukraine (Kuźma, Dąbrowski, et al, 2020).…”