PART I
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appointed former President Leonid Kravchuk as chairperson of Ukraine’s delegation to the Minsk Contact Group, the forum that negotiates solutions to Russia’s undeclared war against Ukraine. Concurrently, Mr. Zelenskyy has appointed former Prime Minister Vitold Fokin as a member of this delegation. Messrs. Kravchuk and Fokin are 86 and 88 years old, respectively.
Mr. Kravchuk replaces former President Leonid Kuchma, who has retired from the position of delegation chief, citing fatigue. Mr. Kuchma was 76 when then-President Petro Poroshenko appointed him in 2014 to head the Ukrainian delegation to the Minsk Contact Group. While Mr. Kuchma could draw on solid international diplomatic experience for this assignment, Messrs. Kravchuk and Fokin are basically Ukrainian parochial figures.