Cabinet appoints Kharkiv defense head Melnyk as Deputy Defense Minister

The Cabinet of Ministers has appointed Serhii Melnyk, head of the Kharkiv defense, head of the Military Legal Institute, as Deputy Minister of Defense.

The Ministry of Defense has said this in a statement, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

"The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, at the request of the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, appointed Brigadier General of Justice Serhii Mykolaiovych Melnyk as Deputy Minister of Defense," the message reads.

Since November 2019, 47-year-old Melnyk has been the head of the Military Legal Institute of the Yaroslav the Wise National University of Law.

In 2022, Melnyk graduated from the strategic level (L-4) senior management courses at the National Defense University of Ukraine.

From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, he managed the defense of Kharkiv.

The newly appointed Deputy Minister is a doctor of legal sciences, a professor of military law, an honored worker of education of Ukraine and a laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in the field of education.

In 1999, he graduated from the Kharkiv Military University, after which he began his career in management positions at the Military Law Faculty of the Yaroslav the Wise National Law Academy. In 2009, he obtained a second higher education.

Since 1999, served in various positions in combat brigades of Air Defense.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, the Cabinet of Ministers also appointed Deputy Minister of Strategic Industries Serhii Boiev as Deputy Minister of Defense.

On October 1, the Cabinet of Ministers dismissed Deputy Defense Minister Stanislav Haider.

Earlier, the Minister of Defense Rustem Umierov announced on Facebook that he sent a petition to the Cabinet of Ministers for the dismissal of Deputy Minister of Defense Stanislav Haider (he is moving to the position of the head of the Minister's Office), Oleksandr Serhii, Yurii Dzhyhyr, as well as State Secretary Liudmyla Darahan.