Ukraine

Ukraine has not acceded to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In an April 2012 letter to the Monitor, Ukraine restated its longstanding position that it “considers cluster munitions to be legal weapons which remain an important component of Ukraine’s defense capabilities.”[1] It also acknowledged that cluster munitions have long-term and deadly consequences for humanity and has said they should be dealt with effectively and urgently.[2] Ukraine has called for a moratorium on the use of “inaccurate and unreliable cluster munitions.”[3]

In the letter Ukraine reaffirmed its preference for cluster munitions to be tackled through the framework of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in order to achieve “balance” between “military and humanitarian aspects of the use of cluster munitions.”[4] It is not known if Ukraine will reevaluate its position on joining the ban convention after the November 2011 failure of the CCW’s Fourth Review Conference to agree on a draft protocol on cluster munitions.

Ukraine has also stated that, if using its own resources alone, it would not be able to destroy the large stockpile of cluster munitions that it inherited from the Soviet Union within the eight-year stockpile destruction deadline required by the Convention on Cluster Munitions (see the Stockpiling and destruction section below).[5]

Ukraine is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty but missed its 1 June 2010 treaty-mandated deadline for the destruction of all stockpiled antipersonnel landmines and does not expect to complete destruction of its stockpile for several more years; it therefore remains in violation of the treaty (see Ukraine Country Profile on mine ban policy).

Ukraine participated in several meetings of the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including the formal negotiations in Dublin in May 2008 as an observer.[6]

Since 2008, Ukraine has shown limited interest in the convention. It participated as an observer in the first two Meetings of States Parties of the convention held in 2010 and 2011, but did not attend the Third Meeting of States Parties in Oslo, Norway in September 2012.

Ukraine has not participated in the convention’s intersessional meetings in Geneva, including those held in April 2013.

Use, production, and transfer

Ukraine is not known to have used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. In November 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that Ukraine would not use cluster munitions except to defend itself from outside aggression. The official also said that Ukraine was not producing new cluster munitions, and would not export or import the weapons from any other country.[7]

Stockpiling and destruction

Ukraine inherited a large stockpile of cluster munitions from the Soviet Union. During a CCW meeting on cluster munitions in April 2011, Ukraine provided information on the types of its stockpiled cluster munitions.

Cluster Munitions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine[8]

Ukraine stated that cluster munitions constitute 35% of its stockpile of conventional weapons totaling two million tons of ammunition. Of these cluster munitions, 34% were produced before 1980. Another 36.18% were produced between 1981 and 1992 and “are planned to be stockpiled and might be used.” The remaining 29.82% contain antivehicle landmines.[9]

Ukraine also reported a yearly average destruction of 10,000–20,000 tons of cluster munitions, and concluded that under present conditions, it would take 60 years to destroy the stockpiles that are currently slated for destruction.[10]