In December 1999 the Ukraine Constitutional Court ruled...

In December 1999 the Ukraine Constitutional Court ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional, and the Ukrainian parliament abolished it in 2000. This has now been reflected in the introduction of a new criminal code in which the death penalty is not included, the maximum punishment being life imprisonment. In April 2001 the new code was approved by parliament. It came into effect on 1 June.
At the end of December 1999, 400 prisoners were reportedly under sentence of death in the Ukraine, but the last execution was carried out in March 1997. Those on death row included serial killer Anatoly Onoprienko, convicted of murdering 52 people. Many Ukrainians favoured retaining the death penalty as crime rates soared after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.