First president of independent Ukraine is dead

Leonid Kravchuk

Kravchuk was elected Ukrainian head of state in December 1991.

(Photo: Imago)

Kyiv According to media reports, the first president of independent Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk, is dead. Kravchuk died at the age of 88 after a long illness, Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday, citing the politician’s family. “This is sad news and a great loss,” wrote the head of the Office of the President, Andriy Yermak, in the Telegram news service.

Kravchuk was elected head of state in early December 1991 and a few days later signed an agreement with the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) and Stanislav Shushkevich from Belarus, declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and founding a new alliance of the three republics became: the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Two weeks later, eight more Soviet republics joined the community. Shushkevich died last week at the age of 87.

The President of Estonia Alar Karis wrote on Twitterthat he regrets that the former head of state will no longer be able to see his country win again in history.

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Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov paid tribute to Kravchuk’s role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. “Thank you for the peaceful renewal of our independence. We are now defending them, guns in hand,” he tweeted.

During Soviet times, Kravchuk held various posts in the Ukrainian Communist Party. He remained President of Ukraine until 1994. In 2020-2022 he was involved in the ongoing talks on the settlement of the conflict in Donbass as chairman of the Ukrainian group.

More: Read the latest developments in the Ukraine war in the Newsblog


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