Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine’s first president, passed away on May 10 at 17:00 Kyiv time after a prolonged illness. He was 89 years old.
According to Ukrainian News, on June 29, 2021, the former leader missed a ceremonial Verkhovna Rada gathering for Constitution Day due to heart surgery. The operation proved difficult, and he spent an extended period in a coma while connected to a ventilator. Subsequently, Kravchuk received rehabilitation at a clinic in Munich.
socialbites.ca collected seven vivid statements of the politician:
On the collapse of the USSR:
“Ukraine can be proud to have been the nation that ended the Soviet Union in 1991, the last empire, the most formidable one”, Kravchuk once remarked.
On the fate of Crimea:
“Why should we deceive ourselves and the Ukrainian people when I hear leaders say, ‘Yes, we will return, Crimea is ours’? We will not return with a better life in Ukraine; Crimea will never be: ‘We will return to Ukraine,’ Kravchuk stated in 2016.”
On the future of Ukraine:
“You know what I long to see most clearly? How life will improve. Today Europe grants visa-free travel, the president engages in major business ventures, and there are days spent abroad that leave me feeling hopeful. I think, I will live to witness a time when everything changes for the better. I want this to happen soon. I really do”, the former Ukrainian president reflected in 2017.
About family and country:
“Sometimes I ask myself which matters more: family or Ukraine? Yet without Ukraine, there would be no family of mine. So Ukraine always comes first. In 1991 I took the fate of the country into my own hands in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, signing all the key documents. That carries immense responsibility”, Kravchuk told Segodnya in 2015.
About favorite food:
“I have two flavors I adore: cottage cheese and cherries. They’re the essence of classic comfort food. At the Mariinsky Palace, when I hosted George Bush and his wife, meatballs were served made with cottage cheese and cherries. Mrs. Bush asked, ‘What is this?’ I answered, ‘Meatballs.’ She needed a translator and learned they were described as boiled pies in the moment”, the former president recalled.
About income:
“As secretary of the Central Committee, I lived in an apartment of 54 square meters. Money existed, yet buying a car was out of reach. I bought 675 rubles’ worth of something and later learned I would have to wait years to secure a car for my son. When I became president, my wife drove a Lada, and there was no security for the family”, Kravchuk remembered.
About the attitude to death:
“I consider myself a life philosopher. To say I fear death would be a stretch. Why discuss it now? I am not heading to the polls”, the first president stated five years before his death.
What is Leonid Kravchuk famous for?
Kravchuk was born in 1934 in the village of Veliky Zhitin near Rivne. His father, a farmer, perished on the front in 1944. Kravchuk later recalled his childhood as scarce: “a simple piece of bread felt like a gift.”
After finishing school, he enrolled in the Rivne cooperative technical school and graduated with honors in 1953. In 1958, he completed the Economics Faculty at Kyiv State University, specializing in Political Economy, and began teaching.
Kravchuk’s political path started in the 1970s. In 1990, he joined the Central Committee of the CPSU and, on July 23 of that year, led the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. Following the August 1991 coup attempt, he left the Communist Party and became the country’s first non-partisan president in 1991.
He led Ukraine as its first president from 1991 to 1994. In December 1991, Kravchuk, along with Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Stanislav Shushkevich of Belarus, signed the Belovezhskaya Agreements, which announced the dissolution of the USSR. He later argued that Ukrainians themselves were instrumental in ending the Soviet Union, notably voting for independence in the 1991 referendum.
After leaving the presidency, Kravchuk served as a people’s deputy in the Verkhovna Rada for twelve years. His early stance favored closer ties with Russia and supported the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. Over time he shifted toward stronger European and NATO alignment, and in 2015 led the Ukraine Movement at the NATO public agency.
Since July 28, 2020, Kravchuk led Ukraine’s delegation in the contact group working to resolve the eastern conflict. On February 27, 2022, together with former presidents Leonid Kuchma and Viktor Yushchenko, he issued a joint appeal to Ukrainians regarding the Russian military operation, stating, “Together we will win. We will endure.”
In April 2022, the Crimean Parliament revoked Kravchuk’s state awards. The ruling Servant of the People party offered condolences to his relatives, highlighting his contributions to building Ukraine as a state, noting that the Ukrainian emblem, flag, and anthem were conceived during his presidency and that the Armed Forces of Ukraine were established under his time in office. The party also emphasized the need to balance different political forces and seek compromise, avoiding radical paths. Kravchuk once explained his approach with a Ukrainian anecdote: “It started to rain. Kravchuk is offered an umbrella. He replies, ‘No need, I’m already in the droplets somehow.’”