On December 1, 1991, Leonid Kravchuk became the first president of independent Ukraine. He joined the respective leaders of independent Russia and Belarus, Boris Yeltsin and Stanislav Shushkevich, on December 8, 1991 to sign the Belavezha Accords, which signified the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union and established the grounds for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The majority of the former Soviet republics joined the CIS, excluding Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, which disassociated from Russia and focused on integration with NATO and the European Union. Since its establishment, Georgia and Ukraine have distanced themselves from the Commonwealth due to its failure to prevent and handle the growing aggression from Russia.
Three years following Ukraine’s official independence, Kravchuk made the controversial decision to relinquish the country’s nuclear arsenal in exchange for pledged security guarantees from the US, the UK, and Russia. On December 5, 1994, Kravchuk signed the Budapest Memorandum along with the leaders of the US, the UK, and Russia, which promised that the political and territorial integrity of Ukraine would not be contested if the country surrendered its nuclear power. Three decades later, the Budapest Memorandum is one amidst numerous agreements Russia has broken. During the infamous exchange on February 28 between President Zelenskyy and President Trump in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy said that between the initial invasion in 2014 and the beginning of his presidency in 2019 alone, Putin broke his signature 25 times on agreements with Ukraine.
Kravchuk peacefully passed the presidency to Leonid Kuchma in 1994. Kuchma had been appointed prime minister by Kravchuk in 1992, but ultimately ended up withdrawing from the position due to disagreements on economic policies. The 1990s were economically devastating for many former republics and Ukraine was not an exception. Kuchma appointed Viktor Yushchenko, a strong advocate for economic reform, as prime minister in 1999. Kuchma had clashed with Kravchuk on this topic, but failed to improve the economy during his presidency. While the economy improved with Yushchenko, support for Kuchma decreased, in favor of the former. Kuchma dismissed Yushchenko in 2001 and replaced him with Viktor Yanukovych as prime minister the following year.
Since its independence, the main point of political strife in Ukraine has been its relationship with Russia and whether to form close ties with their neighbor, or to nationalize. Kravchuk favored the latter and was a key figure in advocating for Ukrainian independence from the crumbling Soviet Union. Kuchma campaigned for the former, but did not hinder or reorient Ukraine’s progressing relationship with the West during his presidency. Although Kuchma may have once shared a civil relationship with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, the former president has since spoken out in defense of Ukraine and its sovereignty following the 2022 invasion.
After being dismissed as prime minister, Yushchenko founded Our Ukraine, a democratic coalition, and entered the presidential race for the 2004 election. His main opposition was Yanukovych, who was backed by Kuchma and Putin. Yushchenko preferred closer ties with the European Union, while Yanukovych preferred closer ties with Russia.
Yushchenko ultimately won, but not before an apparent assassination attempt and full blown revolution against Yanukovych, who was announced victorious despite exit polls showing strong support for Yushchenko. Referred to as the Orange Revolution, supporters of Yushchenko took to the streets in orange, his campaign color, to protest the results. After nearly two weeks of civil unrest, a second election was announced, and Yushchenko emerged as the third president of Ukraine.
Yanukovych tussled over the position of prime minister with Yulia Tymoshenko in the following years, a supporter of Yushchenko in the 2004 election and prominent figure of the Orange Revolution. Tymoshenko briefly served as prime minister after the election, but in 2006, Yushchenko was forced to reinstate Yanukovych due to the growing popularity of the opposition. Tymoshenko regained the position the following year, and ran in the 2010 presidential race three years later against Yushchenko and Yanukovych, which resulted in a narrow win for the latter.
Despite his connections with Russia and affiliation with the Party of Regions, a pro-Russia political party, Yanukovych was prepared to sign a deal with the European Union in 2013. Russia was not enthused. Yanukovych ended up backing out at the last minute, resulting in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv. Putin pledged a substantial amount of financial assistance to Yanukovych to combat the civil unrest which continued into the new year, but Yanukovych was ultimately impeached on February 22, 2014, and ended up fleeing to Russia. Mere days after Yanukovych’s impeachment, Putin retaliated by invading eastern Ukraine, annexing the Crimean Peninsula, and initiating conflict in the Donbas region. Thus, setting the foundation for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
