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 at the beginning of December 1991 and a few days later signed an agreement with the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) and Stanislav Schushkevich from Belarus, declaring the Soviet Union dissolved and founding a new alliance of the three republics became: the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Shushkevich died last week at the age of 87.
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.