Yevheniy Khmara was appointed Acting Minister of Defense of Ukraine from today, July 20. As Hromadske.ua reports, this is stated in government orders. The PromPolitInform portal reports.
Thus, Khmara was appointed Deputy Minister from July 20 and was assigned the duties of Acting Head of the Ministry of Defense.
Recall, on July 16, President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed Yevheniy Khmara to act as Minister of Defense. The head of state stated that he would later “appeal to parliamentarians for support for Yevheniy Khmara for the position of Minister of Defense of Ukraine.”
Before that, the Minister of Defense was Mykhailo Fedorov — his dismissal provoked a wave of negative reaction on social networks.
What is known about Yevheniy Khmara?
The head of the Special Operations Center “A” of the Security Service of Ukraine, Yevheniy Khmara, became the temporary acting head of the SBU on January 5, 2026, after Vasyl Malyuk confirmed that he was leaving his post.
As the SBU press service said, he is an experienced special forces officer who has been serving in the Alpha special forces unit since 2011, and was appointed its chief in 2023.
At the beginning of the full-scale war, Major General Yevheniy Khmara participated in the liberation of the Kyiv region, and after the de-occupation of the capital region, he fought in the Donetsk region.
Yevgeny Khmara has been awarded a number of departmental and state awards:
He is a full cavalier of the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky (I-III degree);
Awarded the Order “For Courage” III degree;
Awarded the Presidential Order of Ukraine “Cross of Military Merit”.
