Centre for Defence Strategies

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: high-ranking government officials, diplomats, heads of Ukrainian and international research Centres and retired senior military officers. Our team is constantly expanding, engaging new distinguished practitioners and scholars with outstanding expertise.

Centre’s Governance Body

Alina Frolova
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
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
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
Oleksiy Martsenyuk
Oleksiy Martsenyuk 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
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
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
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
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

Experts

The Security of the Black-Azov Sea Region | De-Occupation of Crimea

Alina Frolova
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
Alexander Khara
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
Oleksandr Kharchenko
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
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

Experts

Defence Industry and Procurement

Victor Kevlyuk
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)
Arthur Pereverziev
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

Experts

Russo-Ukrainian War and Regional/Global Security

Olesya Favorska
Olesya Favorska Expert of the Centre for Defence Strategies
Oleksii Pavliuchyk
Oleksii Pavliuchyk Deputy Chief of Strategic Planning Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (2018-2020)
Oleksiy Martsenyuk
Oleksiy Martsenyuk 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

Experts

Genocide and War Crimes | Military Justice

Richard Cashman
Richard Cashman British barrister and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Graduate of the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Served with the British contingent to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine

Experts

International analytics and advocacy

Victoria Vdovychenko
Victoria Vdovychenko Director of Security and International Advocacy. With 15 years of experience and extensive research in the fields of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, as well as issues of hybrid warfare and strategic communications. Lectures and conducts research within such institutions as the University of Bologna, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (Germany), the Catholic University of Louivan (Belgium), and the University of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Оксана Лесняк
Оксана Лесняк Експертка Центру оборонних стратегій. Сфера досліджень — Східна та Південно-Східна Азія