Ukraine mourns first president Leonid Kravchuk

Current President Volodymyr Zelensky was clearly emotional as he laid a wreath of white, pale pink and violet flowers by Kravchuk's coffin, which was draped in a blue and yellow national flag.

Zelensky was accompanied by his wife, the pair both dressed in black as they paid their final silent respects before a casket guarded by soldiers clad in ceremonial garb, rifles at their sides.

Behind them had been placed a giant photograph of Kravchuk, a hint of a smile on his lips, the face easily recognisable for his white mane of hair.

The ceremony organised at the Ukrainskii Dom, or Ukrainian House, was open to the public in downtown Kyiv, stained glass windows opening the tall, round and concrete building to the sky.

"He was behind the creation of the Ukrainian state," declared Leonid Kuchma after paying his own final respects to the man he succeeded as president.