Lisbon Protocol

All three signed the Lisbon protocol, which obliges them to become non-nuclear.

The Ukrainians put their signatures to the Lisbon protocol.

Under the 1992 Lisbon Protocol, Russia also agreed to receive all nuclear weapons remaining in the territory of other former Soviet republics.

Ukraine became a party to the treaty in July 1992, when Mr. Kravchuk joined the heads of the other former Soviet republics in signing the Lisbon protocols.

The ministries both of foreign affairs and of defence are lobbying parliament hard to ratify START 1 and the Lisbon protocol, and to accept accession to the NPT.

In the so-called Lisbon protocols, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, the newly formed states, agreed not only to give up all their nuclear missiles in accordance with Start I but also to adhere to the nonproliferation treaty banning them from ever having nuclear weapons.

But Ukraine, though it renounced nuclear weapons when it became independent in 1991, is now hesitating to ratify START 1 and the Lisbon protocol, and to accede as a non-nuclear state to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

His conclusion, probably acceptable to most parliamentarians, is that Ukraine should ratify START 1 now, but should hold on to the 46 missiles which that treaty does not cover (though the Lisbon protocol does), and delay accession to the NPT.