First president of Independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk died

Leonid Kravchuk, who led Ukraine to independence during the collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president, died Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. He was 88.

Kravchuk was known as the “wily fox” and he rose through the ranks of Ukraine’s Communist Party. In 1990, he took over as head of the parliament. In 1991, He signed the Belovezha accords with Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich which effectively triggered the Soviet Union’s collapse.