Former deputy defense minister Ivan Havryliuk appointed head of Ukraine's state defense manufacturer
Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk, a former first deputy defense minister, has been appointed CEO of Ukrainian Defense Industry (Ukroboronprom), the country's state-owned defense manufacturing group.
The company's supervisory board announced the appointment on November 3, saying Havryliuk had been selected through an open competition.
The Ukrainian office of international executive search firm Amrop Partnership assisted with identifying and evaluating candidates.
Havryliuk has decades of military experience, particularly in logistics and defense management.
He previously headed logistics operations in Ukraine's Armed Forces and served as deputy chief of the General Staff. Following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, he returned to military service.
In October 2023, he was appointed deputy defense minister and became first deputy minister in May 2024. He left the ministry in May 2026.
Ukroboronprom said his experience and understanding of the military's needs would help expand production capacity and strengthen Ukraine's defense industry.
Havryliuk succeeds Herman Smetanin, who resigned following controversy over an ammunition storage facility in Vyshneve, near Kyiv.
The facility was struck during a Russian attack in July, triggering secondary explosions and the evacuation of approximately 600 residents.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy subsequently confirmed that the site belonged to a Ukroboronprom enterprise. Ukrainian security officials later reported that managers of two state-owned enterprises had acted in violation of the law and decisions of Ukraine's Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff.
Smetanin did not publicly explain his reasons for resigning.
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