UKRAINE….

Vyacheslav Chornovil, a longtime leader of Ukraine’s independence movement who spent twelve years in prison in the Soviet era, died March 25 in an auto accident at the age of 62. As head of the Rukh party–the Ukrainian National Movement–he finished second to Leonid Kravchuk in the country’s first presidential election in 1991. In recent months the Rukh has dwindled and split, and Chornovil’s death seems likely to weaken it further. The party’s current presidential nominee is expected to withdraw in favor of incumbent President Leonid Kuchma.