BASIC FACTS

Ukraine is an eastern European country bordered by Poland, Russia, Belarus, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. It gained independence from the Soviet Union following the latter’s dissolution in 1991. Today it is a unitary, semi-presidential constitutional republic.

Capital: Kiev

Ukraine has three nuclear research reactors currently in operation. SNI, IR-100 is a pool-type, light water reactor operated by the Sevastopol University of Nuclear Energy and Industry used for isotope production, education & training, activation analysis, and transmutation; the University also operates SPh IR-100, a critical assembly used for training. WWR-M Kiev is a WWR tank reactor operated by the Ukraine Institute for Nuclear Research and is used primarily for isotope production, materials testing, and activation analysis. Additionally, a subcritical assembly and a general-purpose research reactor are currently in the planning or early construction stages.

Over half of the electricity in Ukraine’s national power grid comes from nuclear power plants. Fifteen reactor units are currently operational, each of which a PWR-type VVER-V320 and operated by the state-owned national energy enterprise ENERGOATOM. Two additional units (KHMELNITSKI-3 and KHMELNITSKI-4) are currently under construction, to be PWR-type VVERs.

In 1986 Ukraine experienced one of the largest nuclear accidents in history when one of the four RBMK, LWGR-type reactor units at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded during a safety test. All four units have been in permanent shutdown since 2000.

TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

• • • • Observer of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
      • Member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1957
      • Acceded to 1925 Geneva Protocol in 2003
      • Acceded to Antarctic Treaty in 1992
      • Signed Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention in 1999
        • Ratified in 2005
      • Signed Arms Trade Treaty in 2014
      • Signed Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) 1972
        • Ratified in 1975
      • Signed Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993
        • Ratified in 1998
      • Signed Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996
        • Ratified in 2001
      • Signed Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in 1981
        • Ratified in 1982
      • Signed Convention on Environmental Modification Techniques (ENMOD) in 1977
        • Ratified in 1978
      • Acceded to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials (CPPNM) in 1993
      • Signed International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT) in 2005
        • Ratified in 2007
      • Signed & Ratified Outer Space Treaty in 1967
      • Signed & Ratified Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963
      • Signed & Ratified Sea-bed Treaty in 1971
      • Signed Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) in 1990
        • Ratified in 1992
      • Signed Treaty on Open Skies in 1992
        • Ratified in 2000
      • Acceded to Treaty for the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1994

REGIONAL GROUPS

• • • • Member of the Council of Europe
      • Member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
      • Member of the Eastern European Group
      • Member of the Australia Group

RECENT REPRESENTATION IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

 

• Rapporteur of the UN First Committee in 2009
• Non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 200/2001 and 2016/2017
• Member of the 1540 Committee in 2016/2017

LINKS

Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine

UN State Summary

Ratification of Treaties & Memberships in International Organizations Related to Disarmament