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Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine's 1st president, dies at age 88 Kravchuk led Ukraine as
its Communist Party boss in the waning years of the Soviet Union. He played a
pivotal role in the demise of the USSR before holding the Ukrainian presidency
from 1991 to 1994.
OBITUARIES
LEONID KRAVCHUK, INDEPENDENT UKRAINE'S 1ST PRESIDENT, DIES AT AGE 88
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May 10, 20224:08 PM ET
The Associated Press
Enlarge this image
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk speaks during a campaign rally in
Kyiv, on Jan. 22, 2019. Kravchuk, who led Ukraine to independence amid the
collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president, has died. He was
88. Efrem Lukatsky/AP hide caption
toggle caption
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk speaks during a campaign rally in
Kyiv, on Jan. 22, 2019. Kravchuk, who led Ukraine to independence amid the
collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president, has died. He was
88.
Efrem Lukatsky/AP
KYIV, Ukraine — Leonid Kravchuk, who led Ukraine to independence amid the
collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president, has died,
Ukrainian officials said Tuesday. He was 88.
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office,
confirmed Kravchuk's death on the social media app Telegram without giving
details of the circumstances. Kravchuk had been in poor health and underwent a
heart operation last year.
Kravchuk led Ukraine as its Communist Party boss in the waning years of the
Soviet Union, and played a pivotal role in the demise of the USSR before holding
the Ukrainian presidency from 1991 through 1994.
EUROPE
HOW THE SOVIET UNION'S COLLAPSE EXPLAINS THE CURRENT RUSSIA-UKRAINE TENSION
He was a driving force in Ukraine's declaration of independence from the Soviet
Union in 1991 and later that year joined leaders of Russia and Belarus to sign
an agreement on Dec. 8, 1991, which formally declared that the Soviet Union
ceased to exist.
As president, Kravchuk agreed to transfer remaining Soviet nuclear weapons on
Ukrainian territory to Russian control, in a deal backed by the United States.
He lost the 1994 presidential election to former prime minister Leonid Kuchma.
In 2020 he returned to politics to try to negotiate a settlement as part of a
"contact group" for the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Russia-backed
separatists had fought Ukrainian forces since 2014.
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WORLD
RUSSIA'S AT WAR WITH UKRAINE. HERE'S HOW WE GOT HERE
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter that with
Kravchuk's signature to the December 1991 agreement disbanding the Soviet Union
"the Evil Empire disintegrated."
"Thank you for the peaceful renewal of our Independence. We're defending it now
with weapons in our hands," Reznikov wrote Tuesday.
Kravchuk's death comes a week after that of the first president of post-Soviet
Belarus, Stanislav Shushkevich, who died aged 87 following treatment for
COVID-19, according to his wife.
Since Shushkevich's death, Kravchuk was the last survivor of the three leaders
who signed the 1991 deal. Russian president Boris Yeltsin died in 2007 aged 76.
UKRAINE INVASION — EXPLAINED
THE RIPPLE EFFECTS OF RUSSIA'S WAR IN UKRAINE ARE CHANGING THE WORLD
Since annexing Crimea from Ukraine and throwing its weight behind the 2014
separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has
sought to cast doubt on Ukraine's statehood and falsely portray the country as
an artificial construct of Communist rule — rhetoric that paved the way for the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a televised address Feb. 21, three days before the invasion, Putin blamed
"historic, strategic mistakes" by Communist leaders for having led to the
collapse of the Soviet state. Ukraine "turned to us for financial support many
times from the very moment they declared independence," Putin said in an
apparent reference to Kravchuk's time in office.
Some participants in the historic Dec. 8 meeting at a hunting lodge in the
Belovezha forest, in what is now Belarus, pointed to Kravchuk as having played
the main role in the demise of the Soviet Union.
THE PICTURE SHOW
KYIV RESIDENTS BEGIN TO FIND CALM AFTER RUSSIAN FORCES' RETREAT
Ukraine had declared its sovereignty after an August coup by hardline Communist
Party members weakened Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's authority. A week
before the Belovezha agreement, Kravchuk was elected president of Ukraine in a
vote that also overwhelmingly approved its independence from Moscow.
Participants in the Belovezha talks said Kravchuk rejected any efforts to keep
the Soviet Union going with reforms.
"Kravchuk was focused on Ukraine's independence," Belarusian leader Shushkevich,
who took part in the talks and signed the deal, told The Associated Press in an
interview last year. "He was proud that Ukraine declared its independence in a
referendum and he was elected president on Dec. 1, 1991."
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