Since its independence in 1991, Ukraine has not been engaged in offensive or defensive biological weapons activities. However, under the Soviet regime, some Ukrainian anti-plague research facilities were involved in biological warfare (BW) activities that were largely defensive. The I.I. Mechnikov Anti-Plague Scientific Research Institute of Ukraine in Odesa (formerly known as I.I. Mechnikov Research Scientific Institute of Virology and Epidemiology) and its two field monitoring anti-plague stations in Odesa and Simferopol were under the authority of the Main Directorate of Quarantine Infections of the USSR Ministry of Health. These facilities were mainly responsible for civilian epidemiological investigations and did not have direct links with the USSR Ministry of Defense (MOD) or Biopreparat BW facilities. (In 1973, Biopreparat was established, the organization responsible for about 40 civilian research and development facilities located throughout the Soviet Union that worked on biological weapons development.) However, as with other Soviet anti-plague institutes, the Ukrainian anti-plague facilities may have provided virulent strains to the MOD or Biopreparat and developed vaccines against and diagnostic materials for pathogens weaponized by the military.

Although Ukraine was a Soviet republic at the time, it had a seat at the United Nations and ratified the BWC in 1975. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukrainian officials publicly stated that they view biological weapons proliferation as a threat to the national security of Ukraine. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the country does not have a BW program and has no intention of establishing one.

For additional information on Ukraine's anti-plague research facilities, please see "The Anti-Plague System of Ukraine" [PDF] in the Center for Nonproliferation Studies' The Soviet Anti-Plague System study.

International Initiatives and Support Programs

In the mid-1990s, Western governments and international organizations began involving biological research facilities and their scientists in cooperative projects. These international activities include assistance and support with:

• Collaborative research - to prevent scientists from selling their expertise to terrorist groups or proliferating states and use their knowledge for peaceful purposes,
• biosafety enhancement - to make facilities safer places at which to work,
• biosecurity improvement - to consolidate and restrict access to pathogens by unauthorized persons

These projects are supported by:

• The Nuclear Threat Initiative
• US Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR)
• US Department of State's BioIndustry Initiative program (BII)
• US Department of Energy's Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) program
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Service (DHHS) Biotechnology Engagement Program (BTEP)
• Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF)
• International Science and Technology Centre (ISTC)
• European Union nations on a bilateral basis through the G8 Global Partnership Against Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. The EU contribution to the G8 Global Partnership is provided through two different mechanisms:
  European Community Technical Assistance for the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS) Program European Union Joint Action on nonproliferation and Russian Federation
• International Association for the Promotion of Cooperation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (INTAS)
• The European Union's INCO-COPERNICUS program
• Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW)
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• UK Royal Society

Sources:
--Roger Roffey, Wilhelm Unge, Jenny Clevstrom and Kristina Westerdahl, Support to Threat Reduction of the Russian Biological Weapons Legacy - Conversion, Biodefence and the Role of Biopreparat, Swedish Defense Research Agency, Umeå, April 2003.
--Ukraine Ministry of Health, I.I. Mechnikov Anti-Plague Scientific and Research Institute of Ukraine, Odessa 2003.
--Serguei Popov and Marina Voronova, "Russian Bioweapons: Still the Best-Kept Secret? Nonproliferation Review, (Fall 2004), Vol. 11, No. 3.

	Updated December 2008