Constitutionality of controversial Kharkiv Pact to be reviewed by court

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine is to review the constitutionality of the controversial agreements signed in 2010 between Ukraine and the Russian Federation which allowed Russia's Black Sea Fleet to be based in Crimea until 2042.

Source: Constitutional Court of Ukraine press office; submission filed by MPs

Details: On 31 March, the Court received a submission from 49 Members of Parliament (People's Deputies) (from the European Solidarity party and the Holos (Voice) party) regarding the constitutionality of the so-called Kharkiv Pact, an agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation which enabled Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to remain in Ukrainian territory.

The MPs believe that the Kharkiv Pact is inconsistent with Art. 17.7 of the Constitution. They say the agreement runs contrary to the principles of ensuring national security and are calling for it to be recognised as unconstitutional.

The agreement was signed on 21 April 2010 and ratified in Russia’s State Duma and Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) simultaneously on 27 April 2010. There was no opportunity for the general public to read the text of the agreement between its signing and ratification.

Note: The documents extending the stay of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine for another 25 years - signed contrary to Ukraine’s national interests - and the increase in Russian armed forces personnel and military equipment in Crimea, created threats to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Under the basic agreements signed in 1997, the Russians were supposed to have reduced their contingent on the peninsula. Instead, the Kharkiv Pact enabled the aggressors to deploy enough resources to occupy the peninsula in 2014 and to carry out the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Due to these criminal actions, in late 2013 and early 2014, the number of Russian military personnel and equipment in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol exceeded the quantitative levels set by the basic agreements. In Sevastopol there were at least 2,917 marines, 152 armoured combat vehicles, and 30 artillery systems with a calibre of 100 mm and above. The Russian Federation secretly upgraded its equipment, but this was overlooked by the Ukrainian leadership.

Background:

• In 2010, the then presidents of Ukraine and Russia, Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev, signed an agreement in Kharkiv which stipulated that Ukraine would effectively lease Crimea to the Russian Black Sea Fleet for an indefinite period, for which Moscow would give Kyiv a $100 discount on gas.
• The ratification of the Kharkiv Pact was submitted to Parliament on 27 April 2010, and this session was one of the most controversial in Ukrainian history.
• On 11 March 2021, it was reported that the Security Service of Ukraine would be looking into whether the ratification of the so-called Kharkiv Pact by 236 MPs on 27 April 2010 constituted treason. Ukrainska Pravda published the full list of these MPs, which includes currently serving MPs and politicians.
• In December 2022, the State Bureau of Investigation and the Prosecutor General's Office completed a special pre-trial investigation into the charge that former President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov committed treason by implementing the Kharkiv Pact. 
• Azarov has been served with a notice of suspicion of treason by prior conspiracy by a group of persons due to the signing of the Kharkiv Pact in 2010.

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