Chief of the General Staff (Ukraine)

The Chief of the General Staff (Ukrainian: Начальник Генерального штабу) is the chief of staff of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He/she is appointed by the President of Ukraine. If the Minister of Defense is a civilian the Chief of the General Staff becomes the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The current Chief of the General Staff is Serhiy Shaptala.

Previously the Chief of the General Staff also served concurrently as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Головнокомандувач Збройних сил України), a position just second to the Supreme Commander in Chief. On 28 March 2020 a decree by President Volodymyr Zelensky divided the posts of Commander in Chief and Chief of General Staff.

Chiefs of General Staff

Armed Forces of Ukraine

The office created upon the reorganization of the Soviet Kyiv Military District when its head, Colonel General Viktor Chechevatov, after receiving the offer to be appointed to the post, refused to pledge his allegiance to the Ukrainian people. Originally it was known as Chief of the Headquarters and was designated as the First Deputy of the Minister of Defense. In 1996 it was changed to Chief of the General Staff. In 2002 as part of military reform, the post was separated from the civil service and lost its ministerial deputy functions. In 2005 Chief of the General Staff was reaffirmed as the primary commander of the Armed Forces in the country and was granted a parallel post of Commander-in-Chief. In 2020 another reorganization took place as part of ongoing military reform triggered by the Russian aggression and the post of Commander-in-Chief was split into a separate post.

No.	Portrait	Chief of the General Staff	Took office	Left office	Time in office	Defence branch	Ref.
–		Lieutenant General Georgiy Zhyvytsia [uk] (1937–2015) Acting	23 December 1991	4 June 1992	164 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
1		Lieutenant General Vasyl Sobkov [uk] (1944–2020)	4 June 1992	25 September 1992	113 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces	.
–		Lieutenant General Ivan Bizhan (born 1941) Acting	25 September 1992	24 March 1993	180 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces	.
2		Colonel General Anatoliy Lopata [uk] (born 1940)	24 March 1993	10 February 1996	2 years, 323 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
3		Colonel General Oleksandr Zatynaiko (born 1949)	12 March 1996	30 September 1998	2 years, 202 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
4		General of Army of Ukraine Volodymyr Shkidchenko (born 1948)	1 October 1998	13 November 2001	3 years, 43 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
–		Lieutenant General Mykola Palchuk [uk] (1945–2016) Acting	13 November 2001	27 November 2001	14 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces	.
5		Colonel General Petro Shulyak (born 1945)	27 November 2001	28 July 2002	223 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
(3)		Colonel General Oleksandr Zatynaiko (born 1949)	13 August 2002	3 June 2004	1 year, 295 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
6		General of Army of Ukraine Serhiy Kirichenko (born 1952)	19 July 2004	18 November 2009 [a]	7 years, 122 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
7		Colonel General Ivan Svyda (born 1950)	18 November 2009	31 May 2010 [b]	194 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
8		Colonel General Hryhoriy Pedchenko (born 1955)	31 May 2010	18 February 2012	1 year, 263 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
9		Lieutenant General Volodymyr Zamana (born 1959)	18 February 2012	19 February 2014	2 years, 1 day	Ukrainian Ground Forces
10		Admiral Yuriy Ilyin (born 1962)	19 February 2014	28 February 2014	9 days	Ukrainian Navy
11		Lieutenant General Mykhailo Kutsyn (born 1957)	28 February 2014	3 July 2014	125 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
12		General of the Army of Ukraine Viktor Muzhenko (born 1961)	3 July 2014	21 May 2019	4 years, 322 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
13		Lieutenant General Ruslan Khomchak (born 1967)	21 May 2019	28 March 2020	312 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
14		Lieutenant General Serhiy Korniychuk (born 1965)	28 March 2020	28 July 2021	1 year, 122 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces
15		Lieutenant General Serhiy Shaptala (born 1973)	28 July 2021	Incumbent	219 days	Ukrainian Ground Forces

Historical offices

Ukrainian People’s Republic

Ukrainian General Staff

No.	Portrait	Chief of the Ukrainian General Staff	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Major General Borys Bobrovsky [uk] (1868–1933)	November 1917	March 1918	4 months
2		Colonel Oleksandr Slyvynsky [uk] (1886–1956)	8 February 1918	12 February 1918	4 days
3		Ensign general Oleksander Osetsky (1873–1937)	12 February 1918	August 1919	4 months

Headquarters of the UPR

No.	Portrait	Chief of the Headquarters of the UPR	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Ensign general Vasyl Tyutyunnyk [uk] (1890–1919)	1919	8 September 1919	8 days
2		Colonel Volodymyr Sinclair (1887–1919)	8 September 1919	26 September 1919	18 days

General Staff of UPR

No.	Portrait	Chief of the General Staff of UPR	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Colonel Volodymyr Sinclair (1887–1919)	28 October 1918	19 August 1921	2 years, 295 days
2		Colonel Vsevolod Petriv (1883–1948)	19 August 1921	June 1922	8 days

West Ukrainian National Republic

Ukrainian Galician Army No. Portrait Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army Took office Left office Time in office 1 Colonel Dmytro Vitovsky (1887–1919) 28 October 1918 5 November 1918 8 days 2 Colonel Hryhoriy Kossak [uk] (1882–1939) 5 November 1918 9 November 1918 4 days 3 Colonel Hnat Stefaniv (1895–1949) 9 November 1918 10 December 1918 31 days 4 General Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko (1878–1952) 10 December 1918 9 June 1919 181 days 5 General Oleksandr Hrekov (1875–1958) [19] 9 June 1919 5 July 1919 26 days 6 General Myron Tarnavsky (1869–1938) 5 July 1919 7 November 1919 125 days 7 General Osyp Mykyta [uk] (1871–1920) 7 November 1919 12 February 1920 97 days

General Bulawa General Bulawa was a name of the General Staff of Ukraine in 1917–1920.[20]