Ukrainian Ex-President Kravchuk Takes Presidential Envoy Post In Group For Resolving Conflict

KYIV -- Ukraine's first President Leonid Kravchuk has agreed to take the post of presidential envoy in the trilateral contact group on resolving the armed conflict in the country’s east.

The 86-year-old Kravchuk announced his decision on July 31, two days after another former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, quit the post.

Kravchuk led Ukraine from 1991 to 1994 and was one of three Soviet leaders who signed the document on dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Kuchma, who ran the country between 1994 and 2005, served as Ukraine's presidential envoy in the trilateral group consisting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2014 to 2018.

After Volodymyr Zelenskiy was inaugurated as Ukrainian president in May last year, Kuchma returned to the group, which has been involved in negotiations on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict between Russia-backed separatists and Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.

The fighting has killed more than 13,200 people since April 2014.