Nuclear Disarmament Ukraine

Warhead of Missile SS-24
«Scalpel» (RS-22A, «Molodets»)
Michael A., picasaweb.google.com

Arsenal Size

• Ukraine does not possess nuclear weapons. [1]
• Ukraine had 1,900 Soviet strategic nuclear warheads and between 2,650 and 4,200 Soviet tactical nuclear weapons deployed on its territory at the time of independence in 1991. [2] 176 Soviet ICBMs were located in Ukraine (130 SS-19 ICBMs and 46 SS-24 ICBMs), and 44 strategic bombers. [3]

SS-24 Missile Silo, Strategic
Missile Forces Museum, Ukraine,
Michael A., picasaweb.google.com

Destructive Power

• N/A

Progress in Disarmament

• By 1996, Ukraine transferred all Soviet-era strategic warheads to Russia. [4]
• Ukraine received extensive assistance to dismantle ICBMs, ICBM silos, heavy bombers, and cruise missiles from the U.S. funded Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. ICBM silos were destroyed by 2002, ICBMs were dismantled or transferred to Russia, and heavy bombers were eliminated by 2001. [5]


Soviet Oscar class cruise
missile submarine launches 2
SS-N-19 cruise missiles
(drawing),
www.defenseimagery.mil

• Former President Yanukovych announced at the 2010 Nuclear Security Summit that Ukraine would remove all of its HEU by 2012. [6] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in March 2012 that all of the HEU had been transferred to Russia. [7]
• Some countries (mainly the United States and other NATO members) argue that recent Russian aggression, including the annexation of Crimea, violates the Budapest Memorandum that led to Ukraine renouncing the nuclear weapons on its territory following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and joining the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine remains committed to the NPT regime. [8]

Nuclear Weapons Related Policies

State Party to:

• Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
• Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (PTBT)
• Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
• START I (the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty)
• Ratified the Lisbon Protocol to START I. [9]
• Has not signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). [10]

Sources:
[1] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 373.
[2] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 373.
[3] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), p. 373.
[4] Hans M. Kristensen, Alicia Godsberg, Jonathon Garbose, "Ukraine Special Weapons," Nuclear Information Project: Federation of American Scientists, www.fas.org .
[5] Joseph Cirincione, Jon B. Wolfsthal, Miriam Rajkumar, Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2005), pp. 378-379.
[6] "NNSA Achieves Milestone in Removal of HEU from Ukraine," National Nuclear Security Administration, 31 December 2010, nnsa.energy.gov.
[7] Pavel Podvig, "Ukraine removed all HEU from its territory," International Panel on Fissile Materials, 22 March 2012, www.fissilematerials.org.
[8] "Statement by the Representative of the Delegation of Ukraine," First Committee of the 69th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, 10 October 2014, www.statements.unmeetings.org.
[9] Inventory of International Nonproliferation Organizations and Regimes: Ukraine, James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, www.nonproliferation.org; Treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Strategic Offensive Reductions (START I), Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), www.nti.org.
[10] "Positions on the treaty," International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, 7 July 2017, www.icanw.org.