Capital punishment in Ukraine
Capital punishment was abolished in Ukraine in 2000. In 1995 Ukraine had entered the Council of Europe and thus it was obliged to undertake to abolish the death penalty. The Verkhovna Rada introduced amendments to the then acting Criminal Code in 2000, according to which “death penalty” was withdrawn from the list of official punishments of Ukraine. Ukraine carried out its last execution in 1997 according to Amnesty International.Historical outlook
Capital punishment in Ukraine existed soon after fall of the Russian Empire in 1917. Among of known people who was executed by the Ukrainian authorities was Ivan Samosenko. In 1920, Ukraine was split primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian SFSR.
In 1995, Ukraine entered the Council of Europe and one of the obligations it had to undertake with this act was to abolish the death penalty. Little actions to do so were undertaken by the Verkhovna Rada until September 1998 after international pressure by the Council of Europe and the European Union. the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled the death penalty unconstitutional in December 1999. The Verkhovna Rada introduced amendments to the then acting Criminal Code in April 2000 that withdrew capital punishment from the list of official punishments of Ukraine.
Ukraine was the last Council of Europe member state that used to be part of the Eastern Bloc to abolish the death penalty.Politics
Ukrainian far-right political party supports bringing back the death penalty.The Donetsk People's Republic, an unrecognized state, introduced the death penalty in 2014 for cases of treason, espionage, and assassination of political leaders. There had already been accusations of extrajudicial execution occurring.
