The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff will have a separate aviation vertical: appointments have been made.

The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will create a separate aviation structure aimed at developing aviation in the country. This was announced by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.

The main goal of creating this structure is to improve the effectiveness of using existing aviation platforms and mastering new technologies that will give Ukraine an advantage in the sky. There are already successfully utilized aircraft such as the F-16 and Mirage, but this is just the beginning, and the development direction will continue.

Zelensky emphasized that a meeting took place on March 28 with representatives of the public sector and military personnel who assist in the development of military aviation. Present at the meeting was the mother of the Hero of Ukraine Andriy Pilshchikov - Liliya Averyanova. Together, they agreed on a new structure to strengthen the aviation component and specific steps for leadership and technological development.

According to the order, heads of this structure have been appointed:

• Major General Oleksii Marchenko - Deputy Chief of the General Staff;
• Brigadier General Serhiy Holubtsov - Deputy Commander of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
• Colonel Oleksandr Diakiv - Commander of Aviation - Deputy Commander of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Minister Umerov has also submitted an application to the Cabinet of Ministers for the appointment of Oleksandr Kozenko as Deputy Minister of Defense for Aviation Issues. Kozenko previously worked as an advisor to the minister and dealt with issues of adapting the F-16 and Mirage in Ukraine. His task now is to expand this work across the entire military aviation system.

Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published a video of a Ukrainian pilot from the cockpit of a French fighter jet Mirage-2000.