Kravchuk now presidential envoy to TCG
Ukraine’s first President Leonid Kravchuk has agreed to take the post of presidential envoy in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on resolving the armed conflict in the country’s east. The 86-year-old Mr. Kravchuk announced his decision on July 31, two days after another former Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, quit the post. Mr. Kravchuk was president of Ukraine in 1991-1994 and was one of three Soviet leaders who signed the document on dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Mr. Kuchma, who ran the country between 1994 and 2005, served as Ukraine’s presidential envoy in the TCG, consisting of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from 2014 to 2018. After Volodymyr Zelenskyy was inaugurated as president in May 2019, Mr. Kuchma returned to the group, which has been involved in negotiations on finding a peaceful solution to the conflict between Russia-backed militants and Ukrainian armed forces in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. (RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service)