Arms Control and Disarmament
Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited two divisions of the Strategic Rocket Forces' 43rd Rocket Army (HQ Vinnitsa), the 19th Rocket Division (Khemilnitskiy) (90? UR-100N/SS-19/RS-18) and the 46th Rocket Division at Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast, equipped with 40 SS-19, and 46 silo-mounted RT-23 Molodets/SS-24s.[13] Ukraine voluntarily gave up these and its other nuclear weapons during the early 1990s. This was the first time in human history that a country voluntarily gave up the use of strategic nuclear weapons, though the Republic of South Africa was destroying its small tactical nuclear weapons program at about the same time.
SS-20 on display at the Great Patriotic War Museum, KievUkraine has plentiful amounts of highly enriched uranium, which the United States wanted to buy from the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology. Ukraine also has two uranium mining and processing factories, a heavy water plant, a technology for making electronic to determine the isotopic composition of fissionable materials. Ukraine has deposits of uranium that are among the world’s richest. In May 1992, Ukraine signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in which the country agreed to give up all nuclear weapons, and to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear weapon state. Ukraine ratified the treaty in 1994, and as of January 1, 1996, no military nuclear equipment or materials remained on Ukrainian territory.
On 13 May 1994, the United States and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the Transfer of Missile Equipment and Technology. This agreement committed Ukraine to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) by controlling exports of missile-related equipment and technology according to the MTCR Guidelines.
Recent operations
Ukraine has been playing an increasingly larger role in peacekeeping operations. Since 1992, over 30,000 soldiers took part in missions in former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Eastern Slavonia,Serbia/Kosovo), Middle East (Southern Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq), African Continent (Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia).
Since 1997, Ukraine has been closely working with NATO, and especially Poland. A Ukrainian unit was deployed in Iraq, as part of the multinational force in Iraq under Polish command. Ukrainian troops are also deployed as part of the Ukrainian-Polish Battalion (UKRPOLBAT) in Kosovo. The total Ukrainian military deployment around the world as of May 28, 2008 is 570 servicemen participating in 11 peacekeeping missions in 9 countries.
The first battle of a regular formation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces happened on April 6, 2004 in Kut, Iraq, when the Ukrainian peacekeeping contingent was attacked by militants of the Mahdi Army. The Ukrainians took fire, and over several hours held the objectives they had been assigned to secure
Deployment outside Ukraine
Deployments as of November 2008:
Afghanistan: ISAF (PRT CHAGHCHARAN) - 10 Officers (3 medical officers)
Democratic Republic of the Congo: (MONUC) - 2 Police, 13 Military Observers
East Timor: (UNMIT) - 2 Police
Georgia: (UNOMIG) - 5 Military Observers
Iraq: - 37 (29 commissioned officers, 8 non-commissioned officers)
Kosovo: (KFOR) - 185 Soldiers
Kosovo: (UNMIK) - 4 Liaison officers
Liberia: (UNMIL) - 302 Troops, 14 Police, 3 Military Observers
Moldova: (Transnistria) - 10 Military Observers
Sudan: (UNMIS) - 14 Police, 13 Military Observers