Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has dismissed two deputy defence ministers — Ivan Havryliuk and Yevhen Moisiuk. The decision was announced by Taras Melnychuk, the government’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. At the same time, neither the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine nor Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov mentioned the dismissals on their official social media pages.
Both officials are career military officers who first joined the ministry’s leadership under previous defence ministers. Following their dismissal, the ministry’s top leadership now consists entirely of civilians.
The dismissed officials oversaw some of the most sensitive areas of Ukraine’s defence sector. Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk coordinated the strategic development of the defence-industrial complex. In particular, he was responsible for shaping and implementing the legal framework for “Defence City” — a flagship 2025 initiative aimed at reducing the tax burden and stimulating the defence industry. His portfolio also included military policy, defence planning, and the construction of fortifications.
Lieutenant General Yevhen Moisiuk supervised personnel policy and mobilisation preparedness. His responsibilities covered the full cycle of human resources management — from voluntary recruitment and compulsory mobilisation to retaining personnel within the Defence Forces and overseeing demobilisation. These remain some of the ministry’s most publicly debated and objectively challenging areas of work.
The possible implications of these personnel changes are analysed by Oleksandr Veherzhynskyi, researcher at NAKO, in his column for Censor.NET.