Personalities

Our team

The Centre has been established by professionals with outstanding public records and continues to attract experts with years of experience in public and military administration as well as political, analytical, and practical experience in the defence sector.

The Centre's experts include:

Our team is constantly expanding, engaging new distinguished practitioners and scholars with outstanding expertise.

Our Board

Centre’s Governance Body

Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Chairman, Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2019–2020), Head of the MOD Reforms Project Office (2015–2018), Adviser to the President of Ukraine, Member of the Supervisory Board of Ukroboronprom, volunteer. Has over 20 years of experience in the field of heavy industry and industrial engineering.

Alina Frolova

Deputy Chairman, Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2019–2020), Adviser to the Ministry of Defence (2015–2016), Adviser to the Ministry of Information Policy (2016–2018), founder of the «Invictus Games Team Ukraine Project», Stratcom.UA and UCMC.

Oleksandr Kharchenko

Economic and energy security expert, Managing Director of the Energy Industry Research Center. At various times, served as an adviser to the Government and the National Security and Defence Council staff, as well as to the parliamentary committees, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and Naftogaz Ukrainy management.

Volodymyr Ohryzko

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (2007–2009), First Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council (2009–2010), Diplomat, a think tank Chairman, Сentre for Russian Studies

Oleksii Martseniuk

Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2019–2020), public activist, investment and asset management specialist. Has years of experience, inter alia, in the senior executive positions, in the leading international and Ukrainian investment companies

General Wesley Clark

A US Army General. For 34 years served in the army and the US Department of Defence, receiving numerous military awards, honorary knighthoods and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe from 1997 to 2000, commanded NATO forces in Kosovo

Ambassador William Taylor

An American diplomat, civil servant and serviceman. A US chargé d’affaires ad interim for Ukraine (2019– 2020) and US Ambassador to Ukraine (2006–2009). A decorated Vietnam War veteran

Phil Jones

Served as a civilian official of the British Ministry of Defence, a UK Special Defence Adviser to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine (2014–2018) and an Adviser to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2020). Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)

Dr. Neville Bolt

Professor of the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, Director of the King’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Editor- in-Chief of Defence Strategic Communications, the peer reviewed academic journal of NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence

The Security of the Black-Azov Sea Region

Experts

Alexander Khara

Diplomat, foreign affairs and security policy expert, Assistant Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2020), fomer expert of the «Maidan of Foreign Affairs» think tank, official of the Office of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

Andrii Ryzhenko

First rank Captain (ret), Ukrainian Naval Forces Former Officer of NATO Strategic Operations Command J7 Training Directorate, Deputy Chief of Staff for Euro-Atlantic Integration of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, Assistant Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2020)

Alina Frolova

Ihor Kabanenko

Admiral (ret), Ukrainian Naval Forces
Former First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Military Representative of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2014)

Andrii Klymenko

Crimean expert and journalist. Honored Economist of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Black Sea News portal. Head of the Monitoring Group of the Black Sea Institute of Strategic Studies

The Centre for Defence Strategies expresses its gratitude to our Ukrainian and foreign colleagues, and the experts, servicemen, civil servants, politicians, and diplomats for their valuable advice and comments. Particularly, we would like to highlight the significant contribution of Boris Babin, Roman Bezsmertnyi, Nataliya Bugayova, Olesya Favorska, Yevgeniya Gaber, Phil Jones, Michael McCarthy, Oleksiy Melnyk, Hans Petter Midttun, Bohdan Ustymenko and Andri Veselovskiy.

Defence Procurement

Andriy Zagorodnyuk

Arthur Pereverziev

Defence procurement expert. Adviser to the Minister of Defence (2019–2020), expert of the MOD Reforms Project Office (2015–2020), head of the state Defence Procurement Reform project, Adviser to the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine (2014), public activist

Victor Kevlyuk

Colonel, Reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 35 years of military service, head of the Organization and Mobilization Department of the Operational Command West Headquarters (2014–2018), head of the Centre of the Civil-military Cooperation of the Joint Operation Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (2018–2020)

Fellows

Fellows is a group of invited experts who advise the Center, organize or assist the Center with developing its position papers and materials. Fellows include highly reputable analysts, high ranking military personnel, diplomats, legal professionals and civilian experts. Fellows are citizens of Ukraine, as well as representatives of the partner countries, e.g. the United States and Norway. The list of Fellow is constantly expanding.

Our goal is to create an influential advisory body with the most reliable position.