The Constitution can and should be changed according to requirements of the time, but this can only happen in the vital interests of the Ukrainian people, and not as a result of whims or abuses of someone "above," second President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) wrote in his article in the newspaper Holos Ukrainy (Voice of Ukraine).

"It happened so, that the Constitution became the work of my entire long, ten-year presidency. Only a few weeks after my first election, I initiated a process that culminated in the adoption of the 1996 presidential-parliamentary Constitution. And a few weeks before the end of my second term, I achieved the adoption of the 'parliamentary-presidential' political reform, which is often called the 2004 Constitution. Perhaps nothing else can so revealingly demonstrate what a long way Ukraine has traveled in that decade, what profound changes it has gone through, what a meteoric rise it has made. Time has confirmed that I fought for a historically correct choice: today Ukraine lives according to the norms adopted precisely on December 8, 2004," the article of the second president says, published on the Holos Ukrainy  website on Saturday.

Kuchma also wrote that the Constitution protects society and every citizen every day, but there are times when society must protect the Constitution.

"Does this mean that the Constitution should be inviolable? Of course, like any complex organism, the Constitution must develop, improve. The Constitution can and must be changed according to the requirements of the time. But this can only happen in the vital interests of the Ukrainian people, and not as a result of whims or abuse of someone 'on the top'," Kuchma says.

The second president recalls that the road to the adoption of the Constitution was long, and the process was difficult from the very beginning, since the parliament was not "too interested" in the adoption of the new Basic Law.

"There were several reasons, but among the main ones we should mention what in today's 'decommunized' Ukraine will already sound like a historical anachronism: the Verkhovna Rada was predominantly leftist, the largest faction belonged to the communists. They were not only uninterested in reforms, but did not want the success of an independent Ukraine - they hoped to return to power, they wanted their revenge," Kuchma said in his article.