Leonid Pilunsky

Leonid Petrovych Pilunskyi (; 15 September 1947 – 21 November 2021) was a Ukrainian politician, who served as a member of the Crimean Regional Parlament between 2006 and 2014.

Early life He was born on 15 September 1947 in the city of Simferopol, which was then part of the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union. Prior to entering politics, he received a higher education.

Political career In 1996 he became the leader of the Crimean regional organization for the People's Movement of Ukraine.

Pilunskyi spoke out against Russia's annexation of Crimea and subsequently stopped attending parliamentary sessions. After leaving politics in 2014, he focused on his writing career, particularly in writing poetry and a multi-volume literary project about Crimean stories. Later in an interview, he stated he was in self-imposed isolation as he felt on the verge of a mental breakdown after what he observed of other former Crimean deputies "integrating into the Russian occupation system", and called them werewolves. He confirmed he would not return to politics, believing his political style that he called "non-opportunistic" was unneeded in Crimean or Ukrainian politics.

Personal life and death Pilunsky died on 21 November 2021, in Sevastopol, Crimea, after suffering from COVID-19. He was 74 years old.