Leonid Kravchuk livestory.com.ua First president of the independent Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk has called on incumbent president Viktor Yuschenko to resign and call early presidential elections.

Kravchuk said this in his address to Yuschenko broadcast on a number of central television channels on Tuesday.

"I have watched you currently paying attention not to Ukraine's problems, but to the ways to cling to power," Kravchuk said in his statement.

"I see the only solution – the early presidential elections. The majority of people is calling for it. Let me remind you that I brought myself to call the early elections. Did I want to do this? Certainly, not," he said.

"Such a step can stop the storm of problems, calm down the society, and give hope for overcoming of the crisis," the first president concluded.

Kravchuk, who was elected president on December 1 1991, announced early presidential elections in 1994. He lost the elections to Leonid Kuchma, who was Ukraine's president for 10 years.