Leonid Makarovych Kravchuk was born on 10 January 1934[5][6] in the village of Velykyi Zhytyn (Żytyń Wielki) to an ethnic Ukrainian peasant family.

[9] Kravchuk took part in the International Visitor Leadership Program, a professional exchange run by the US State Department.

On 24 October 1990, the monopoly of the Communist Party of Ukraine on power was abolished, and thus, Kravchuk became not only the nominal, but also the actual head of the republic.

Just a few days before on 1 December, the voters voted overwhelmingly to secede from the Soviet Union—a move which Kravchuk now fully supported.

[16] On 6 May 1992, Kravchuk met President George H. W. Bush in the United States and signed an agreement for the full removal of all nuclear tactical weapons from Ukrainian territory by 1 July, and in return obtained a credit line of $110 million to buy U.S.

[18] Kravchuk refused to retain the common armed forces and currency inside the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The status of the Russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Sevastopol and the Crimea was not resolved by a 20-year lease agreement until 1997, three years after Kravchuk left office.

[22] Under Kravchuk's leadership, Ukraine's economy slumped as corruption linked to privatization of Soviet-era industry thrived.

[12][23] Ukraine's economic woes caused a decline in Kravchuk's political popularity, sparking governmental infighting.

[23][22] Kravchuk ran for a second term as president in 1994 but was defeated by Kuchma, with his loss being attributed to the rampant graft and the declining economy.

[25][13] In February 2003, Oleksandr Moroz, the leader of Ukraine's Socialist Party, accused Kravchuk and other 300 public high-ranked officials of being members of the Freemasons.

He explained this based on the fact that his former party decided to join the Bloc of Left and Center-left Forces to run for the 2010 presidential elections.

He was indignant due to the fact that the political council of the party decided to accomplish that behind the closed doors in non-democratic order.

"Only the dead or the stupid do not change their views", he stated in December 2009 when he also voiced the opinion that voting for Yanukovych in the second round of the 2010 elections would indicate an anti-Ukrainian position.

[33] In July 2020, Kravchuk was chosen to represent Ukraine at the Trilateral Contact Group (formed to facilitate a diplomatic resolution to the war in Donbas), being appointed to replace Leonid Kuchma.

On 29 June 2021, he missed the solemn meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on the occasion of Constitution Day due to heart surgery.

On 10 May 2022, a family member told the Ukrainian News Agency that Kravchuk had died at the age of 88, after a long illness.

[13] His death was also confirmed by unnamed officials in Kyiv, as well as Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office.