Ukraine abolished the death penalty in February 2000, with an overwhelming majority vote of the members of the Ukrainian parliament.

Ukraine abolished the death penalty in February 2000, with an overwhelming majority vote of the members of the Ukrainian parliament. The vote followed a December 1999 ruling of the Ukraine Constitutional Court judging the death penalty unconstitutional. The Court found that the punishment violated the principle of the right to life, which is enshrined in the country’s constitution, and contravened the constitutional provision that no one should be subjected to torture or to cruel or inhuman treatment or punishment.
In April 2001 Parliament approved a new Criminal Code formally abolishing the death penalty and establishing imprisonment as the maximum form of punishment. The new legislation became effective as from June 1 of the same year.
On March 11, 2003 Ukraine deposited with the Council of Europe the instrument of ratification of Protocol No 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms banning the death penalty in all circumstances. The Verkhovna Rada had ratified the protocol in November 2002.
Ukraine had promised to abolish the death penalty when it joined the Council of Europe in 1995, and the government was sharply criticized for its failure to fully abolish it. A de facto moratorium on executions was introduced in March 1997, but courts continued to pass death sentences. At the end of December 1999, 400 prisoners were reportedly under sentence of death in the Ukraine, though 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. About 180 people were executed in Ukraine between 1995 and March 1997.
On December 20, 2012, Ukraine co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.