Leonid Kravchuk Yevhen Marchuk Vasyl Onopenko Viktor Medvedchuk Hryhoriy Surkis Following the statement, the party's board denounced the statement of the party's leader and called for a congress to decide the fate of its leader. The October congress excluded its leader from the party. In October 1998 after Medvedchuk became a leader of the party, several prominent former members of the party led by Vasyl Onopenko established the (new party) Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. In February 1999 the party also dismissed another of its member Yevhen Marchuk who wanted with help of the party to run for the President of Ukraine. Marchuk in his turn decided to organize own Social Democratic Union before the upcoming elections.