Our team - 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

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

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 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

Experts

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

Alexander Khara Executive Director, a diplomat, foreign affairs and security policy expert, Advisor Minister of Defence of Ukraine (2020), former 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

Experts

Defence Industry and Procurement

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 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

Marc R. DeVore Senior Lecturer at the University of St Andrews' School of International Relations, specialising in military innovation and defence-industrial affairs. Seconded to the FCDO's Eastern Research Group in 2023 and 2025 to advise on the Russo-Ukrainian War. Chair of the University of St Andrews' Ukraine Working Group since 2022. A Royal Navy Fellow, he co-chairs SANAG, an external expert group advising the Royal Navy

Experts

Russo-Ukrainian War and Regional/Global Security

Hans Petter Midttun Non-resident Fellow at Centre for Defence Strategies with portfolio in International Security and Defence Policy - Hybrid War. He graduated the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, the Norwegian National Defence Command and Staff College and the Norwegian Defense College. He has broad international experience from both operations and postings abroad (NATO, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Ukraine). He served at the Norwegian Joint Headquarters and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) before being posted to Ukraine as the Norwegian Defence Attache (2014-2018)

Stepan Yakymiak Captain (1st rank), retired; veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian War; Candidate of Military Sciences, Associate Professor. Adviser to the commander of the Navy's combined forces grouping (2022), head of the combat-experience analysis section of the Anti-Terrorist Operation staff (2015–2016), and a warship combat-unit commander during hostilities off Georgia (1991). Former Navy staff officer, head of a Navy department, and head of directorate–deputy head of the Centre for Military-Strategic Studies at the National Defence University of Ukraine

Oleksii Pavliuchyk Deputy Chief of Strategic Planning Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (2018-2020)

Olesya Favorska Expert of the Centre for Defence Strategies

Experts

International analytics and advocacy

Victoria Vdovychenko Director of SecurityExpert of the Centre for Defence Strategies. 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)

Oksana Lesnyak Expert of the Centre for Defence Strategies. The field of research is East and Southeast Asia