Ukraine
Practice Relating to Rule 73. Biological Weapons
Ukraine’s IHL Manual (2004) states that the use of “bacteriological (biological) and toxin weapons” as a means of warfare is prohibited.
Under Ukraine’s Criminal Code (2001), “the use of weapons of mass destruction prohibited by international instruments consented to be binding by the [parliament] of Ukraine” is a war crime.
In the preliminary stages of the First Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 1980, Ukraine stated that “the Ukrainian SSR is fully complying with its obligations under articles I, II, III, IV, V and X of the [1972 Biological Weapons Convention], taking into account the relevant parts of the preamble to the Convention”.
In 1994, during a debate in the First Committee of the UN General Assembly, Ukraine stated that it wanted to “rid the densely populated European continent, as well as other regions, of these deadly weapons by the beginning of next century”.
At the Fifth Review Conference of States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in 2001, Ukraine stated that it “fully complies with its obligations under the Convention and has never had the intention to develop, produce, stockpile or acquire in any way the biological weapons, equipment or means of its delivery”.