Leonid Kuchma in the context of "Leonid Kravchuk"

The National Guard of Ukraine (NGU; Ukrainian: Національна гвардія України, romanized: Natsionalna hvardiia Ukrainy, IPA: [nɐts⁽ʲ⁾ioˈnɑlʲnɐ ˈɦwɑrd⁽ʲ⁾ijɐ ʊkrɐˈjinɪ]; abbr. НГУ/NHU [ˌɛnɦeˈu]) is the Ukrainian national gendarmerie and internal military force. It is part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, responsible for public security. Originally created as an agency under the direct control of the Verkhovna Rada on 4 November 1991, following Ukrainian independence, it was later disbanded and merged into the Internal Troops of Ukraine in 2000 by President Leonid Kuchma as part of a "cost-saving" scheme. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, amidst the Russian intervention, the National Guard was re-established, and the Internal Troops were disbanded.

The purpose of the National Guard is to serve as a military unit with law enforcement powers. Its mission is to ensure state security, protect state borders (supporting the State Border Service), participate in activities to neutralize paramilitary armed groups, terrorist organizations, organized groups and criminal organizations, protect critical infrastructure such as Ukraine's nuclear power plants, diplomatic missions, and buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The NGU has sent personnel to UN peacekeeping missions. During peacetime the National Guard focuses on civilian public security, combating organized crime and controlling civil unrest. During wartime the National Guard can be mobilized as a regular military force and take part in combat operations alongside the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which it has done during the war in Donbas and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian: Віктор Андрійович Ющенко, IPA: [ˈwiktor ɐnˈd⁽ʲ⁾r⁽ʲ⁾ijowɪtʃ ˈjuʃtʃenko] ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards the West, European Union, the G7 and NATO.

Yushchenko's first career was in the banking industry. In 1993, he became governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, presiding over their response to hyperinflation and the introduction of a national currency. From 1999 to 2001 he was prime minister under President Leonid Kuchma. After his dismissal as prime minister, Yushchenko went into opposition to President Kuchma and founded Our Ukraine Bloc, which at the 2002 parliamentary election became Ukraine's most popular political force.

Georgiy Ruslanovych Gongadze (21 May 1969 – 17 September 2000) was a Ukrainian journalist. He founded the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda along with Olena Prytula in 2000. The same year, he was kidnapped and murdered near Kyiv. Gongadze was born to a Ukrainian mother and a Georgian father in Tbilisi, Georgia, then part of the Soviet Union.

The circumstances of his death became a national scandal and a focus for protests against then-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma. During the Cassette Scandal, audiotapes were released on which Kuchma, Volodymyr Lytvyn and other top-level administration officials are heard discussing the need to silence Gongadze for his online news reports about high-level corruption. Former Interior Minister Yuriy Kravchenko died of two gunshot wounds to the head on 4 March 2005, just hours before he was to begin providing testimony as a witness in the case. Kravchenko was the superior of the four policemen who were charged with Gongadze's murder soon after Kravchenko's death. The official ruling of suicide was doubted by media reports.

Early presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 26 June 1994, with a second round on 10 July. They were held ahead of schedule following a compromise between President Leonid Kravchuk and the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament. The elections saw Kravchuk defeated by his former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma. They were the first presidential elections in the Commonwealth of Independent States in which the incumbent was defeated.

Kuchma took office on 19 July, marking the first peaceful transfer of power in Ukraine since the fall of Communism.

Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 October 1999, with a second round on 14 November. The result was a victory for Leonid Kuchma, who defeated Petro Symonenko in the run-off, winning a second consecutive presidential election.

As of 2025, this is the only re-election of an incumbent president in the history of independent Ukraine.

Presidential elections were held in Ukraine on 31 March 2019. As none of the 39 candidates on the ballot received an absolute majority of the initial vote, a runoff was held on 21 April between the top two vote-getters: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a television personality, and Petro Poroshenko, the incumbent president. The Central Election Commission (CEC) announced that Zelenskyy won the second round with 73.22% of the total vote (or 74.96% of the valid vote). The elections were recognized as free and fair by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Poroshenko became the third incumbent Ukrainian president to directly lose reelection, after Viktor Yushchenko in 2010 and Leonid Kravchuk in 1994 (only Leonid Kuchma has ever won reelection, in 1999). Zelenskyy was sworn in as the sixth President of Ukraine in May 2019.