Ukraine Suspends Document Setting Limits Under Treaty on Conventional Armaments in CFE Flank Zone

Ukraine has suspended a 1996 document that established additional limits on the deployment of conventional weapons in the flank zone covered by the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty).

The Office of the President of Ukraine published the relevant decree.

“To suspend the validity of the Document agreed by the States Parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe of November 19, 1990, concluded in Vienna on May 31, 1996, and approved by Decree No. 439/97 of the President of Ukraine dated May 14, 1997,” the decree says.

The 1996 document removed the Odesa region from the CFE Treaty’s original flank zone but established separate limits for it: no more than 400 tanks, 400 armored combat vehicles, and 350 artillery systems.

For Russian weapons in the original flank zone, the document established transitional limits through May 31, 1999: 1,897 tanks, 4,397 armored combat vehicles and 2,422 artillery systems. After that date, the limits were to be 1,800, 3,700 and 2,400, respectively. In approving the document, Ukraine stipulated that these provisions did not constitute its consent to the deployment of Russian military equipment on its territory.

Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

At the end of the Cold War, NATO and the Warsaw Pact maintained large concentrations of troops and military equipment in Europe. In 1989, the sides began negotiations in Vienna on reducing conventional weapons, and the following year signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. Its purpose was to reduce the risk of a surprise attack and large-scale offensive.

The treaty established limits on tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, combat aircraft, and attack helicopters in the area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals. The participating states also agreed to exchange data on weapons and allow inspections.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact were assigned equal aggregate limits: each side could have no more than 20,000 tanks, 30,000 armored combat vehicles, 20,000 artillery systems, 6,800 combat aircraft and 2,000 attack helicopters. Of these, up to 16,500 tanks, 27,300 armored combat vehicles, and 17,000 artillery systems could be kept in active units.

After the Soviet Union collapsed, its share was distributed among the successor states under the 1992 Tashkent Agreement. Ukraine was assigned ceilings of 4,080 tanks, 5,050 armored combat vehicles, 4,040 artillery systems, 1,090 combat aircraft, and 330 attack helicopters.

For Russia, the Tashkent Agreement established limits of 6,400 tanks, 11,480 armored combat vehicles, 6,415 artillery systems, 3,450 combat aircraft and 890 attack helicopters. These quotas applied to Russian equipment in the treaty’s area of application, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Urals.

Under a separate Final Act adopted in July 1992, Ukraine was assigned a ceiling of 450,000 military personnel, and Russia a ceiling of 1.45 million personnel in the treaty’s area of application. The count included the personnel of land and air forces and land-based military formations specified in the act. It did not include, among others, naval personnel aboard ships or internal security forces.

In December 2007, Russia unilaterally suspended implementation of its obligations under the treaty. In response, some NATO member states that were parties to the treaty stopped implementing certain provisions concerning Russia in 2011, including providing Moscow with data on weapons and accepting Russian inspections. They continued to fulfill their obligations toward other participants.

On November 7, 2023, Russia formally withdrew from the treaty. That same day, NATO stated that continued compliance by the Allies, in the absence of such obligations for Russia, was unacceptable. NATO member states that were parties to the CFE Treaty announced their intention to suspend its implementation.