 By December 1991 all former Soviet Republics except the RSFSR and the Kazakh SSR had formally seceded from the Union.A week after his election, Kravchuk joined with Yeltsin and Belarusian leader Stanislav Shushkevich in signing the Belavezha Accords, which declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist.The Soviet Union officially dissolved on 26 December.