After Vitaliy Masol was forced to resign, Fokin was appointed as the head of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR on 17 October 1990.

On 22 August 1992, at a plenary session of the Verkhovna Rada, President Leonid Kravchuk accepted a succession diploma from the exiled government of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

[5] Fokin was one of the drafters and signers of the Belavezha Accords that effectively ended the Soviet Union and founded the Commonwealth of Independent States.

During his time as prime minister, he avoided radical pro-market reforms, although critics have argued that Fokin's inaction on the matter and excessive subsidies to various unproductive enterprises contributed to hyperinflation (at 1,210% in 1992) and in general to the poor performance of the Ukrainian economy.

[7] On 30 September 2020, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree dismissing Fokin from the Trilateral Contact Group because he had not been guided in his "activities and statements by the national interests of Ukraine.