children birth_date signature term_end alma_mater term_start order spouse image name deputy predecessor birth_place president office successor religion primeminister article_title
olena pinchuk 9 august 1938 leonid kuchma signature 1996.png 23 january 2005 22 september 1993 13 october 1992 dnipropetrovsk national university 19 july 1994 13 october 1992 november 1986 2nd ludmila talalayeva kuchmaukraine.jpg leonid kuchma Леонід Кучма ihor yukhnovskyi yukhym zvyahilsky leonid kravchuk vitold fokin aleksandr makarov novhorod-siverskyi , ukrainian ssr , soviet union leonid kravchuk 2nd director of yuzhmash president of ukraine prime minister of ukraine general viktor yushchenko vitaliy masol yuriy alekseyev ukrainian orthodoxy vitaliy yushchenko anatoliy kinakh viktor yanukovych masol yevhen marchuk pavlo lazarenko valeriy pustovoitenko viktor leonid kuchma

leonid kuchma

leonid danylovych kuchma -lrb- , born 9 august 1938 -rrb- was the second president of independent ukraine from 19 july 1994 to 23 january 2005 .
kuchma took office after winning the 1994 presidential election against his rival , incumbent leonid kravchuk .
kuchma won re-election for an additional five-year term in 1999 .
his presidency was surrounded by numerous corruption scandals and the lessening of media freedoms .
corruption accelerated after kuchma 's election in 1994 , but in 2000 -- 2001 , his power began to weaken in the face of exposures in the media .
on his watch the ukrainian economy continued to decline until 1999 , whereas growth was recorded since 2000 , bringing relative prosperity to some segments of urban residents .
during his presidency , ukrainian-russian ties began to improve .
after a successful career in the machine-building industry of the soviet union , kuchma began his political career in 1990 , when he was elected to the verkhovna rada -lrb- the ukrainian parliament -rrb- ; he was re-elected in 1994 .
he served as ukrainian prime minister between october 1992 and september 1993 .
since july 2014 , kuchma has been the representative of ukraine on the semi-official peace talks regarding the ongoing war in donbass .
