Young, Battle-Tested Ukraine Officers Being Promoted To Senior Commands

Ukraine has promoted six officers age 40 or younger to brigadier or major general as part of a rejuvenation of the Ukrainian military.

All have been battle-tested in the war against the Russian invasion and have demonstrated both bravery and effective field leadership as Ukraine's forces have fought the larger Russian army to a standstill innovating, adapting and managing the transition from Soviet-era experience to the new age of drone-driven electronic warfare. These promotions signal that the lessons learned on the battlefield of the past four years by its most successful commanders are being embraced as the way forward for the Ukrainian military. JL

Stefan Korshak reports in the Kyiv Post:

Ukraine President Zelensky ordered the promotion of six field commanders to the rank of brigadier or major general in the Armed Forces of Ukraine Tuesday, a wave of promotions favoring younger, battle-tested officers. The youngest to be promoted was Denys Prokopenko, 34, a university graduate with no formal military education. He joined Ukraine’s armed forces in 2014 as a volunteer, serving in every rank, from rifleman to colonel, in Ukraine’s Azov formation. In the spring of 2022, he led the defense of encircled Mariupol. Oleh Apostol, 38, was promoted from brigadier general to major general, and will serve as Air Assault Forces commander. Yaroslav Sydorov, 40, has commanded tank units in Ukraine’s eastern regions and been decorated for bravery. He was promoted to lead the 17th Army Corps, responsible for the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson sector. 

President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the promotion of six veteran field commanders to the rank of brigadier or major general in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) on Tuesday, as part of a wave of promotions favoring younger, battle-tested officers.

Denys “Redis” Prokopenko

The youngest and highest-profile officer to be promoted was Denys “Redis” Prokopenko, 34, a Kyiv native and university graduate with an English degree and no formal military education. He joined Ukraine’s armed forces in 2014 as a civilian volunteer. Prokopenko served in every rank, from rifleman to colonel, in southeastern Ukraine’s Azov formation. Then, in the spring of 2022, he led the bloody defense of encircled port city Mariupol – in a decisive battle that helped put paid to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hopes of conquering Ukraine quickly.

 

The Kremlin has accused both Azov and Prokopenko personally of holding neo-Nazi ideology and having genocidal intent towards Russia. A native Russian-speaker himself, Prokopenko has rejected that narrative, saying simply that he supports Ukraine’s independence from Russia. Within Ukraine, Azov members are widely seen as patriots.

Prokopenko’s current command, 1st Corps “Azov,” is a major formation deployed in Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv region and one of the AFU’s hardest-fighting outfits. As a commander, Prokopenko prioritizes individual soldier weapons proficiency, tactical skill and flexibility by sergeants and junior officers, as well as physical fitness and toughness within all ranks.

 

Oleh “Formoza” Apostol

Oleh “Formoza” Apostol, 38, a career airborne troops officer, was promoted from the rank of brigadier general to that of major general, and will continue to serve as the AFU’s Ukrainian Air Assault Forces commander, according to an announcement by the Office of the President.

 

A native of Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region and a military academy graduate, Apostol first saw action with Ukraine’s airborne troops in 2014 during Russia’s first invasion. In the early years of the full-scale invasion he commanded the 95th Air Assault Brigade, an elite infantry unit fighting in severe battles around Kyiv and Kharkiv. 

Apostol gained a reputation for aggressive counterattacks – using speed and the element of surprise to exploit the inflexibility of the Russian army. He was awarded the “Hero of Ukraine” medal, the country’s highest award for courage, in 2024 and remains one of the AFU’s most decorated officers.

Pavlo “Khanter” Palisa

Pavlo “Khanter” Palisa, 41, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and will also continue serving as Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, overseeing defense and security matters. A professional officer, he interrupted his studies at the US Army Command and General Staff College to return to Ukraine when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. 

The next year, Palisa assumed command of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodny Yar,” a battle-tested unit that formed the backbone of the defense of Bakhmut. In the course of those battles, Palisa’s tactics of flexible defense and concentrated firepower decimated mass assaults by an estimated 25,000 felons recruited from Russian prisons by the Kremlin-associated Wagner mercenary group. 

 

In recent months Palisa has acted as Zelensky’s personal representative to AFU teams managing planning and army reform.

Yaroslav Sydorov

Yaroslav Sydorov, who is believed to be around the age of 40, is a career officer who graduated from the Kharkiv Institute of Tank Troops in 2007. He first saw action in 2014 as a tank company commander, participating in an armored vehicle raid 470 kilometers (292 miles) behind Russian lines that ultimately saw the liberation of the city of Sloviansk. 

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, he has commanded tank and mechanized units in Ukraine’s eastern regions and been decorated for bravery. In early 2026, he was promoted to lead the newly created 17th Army Corps, a major formation responsible for portions of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson sector. 

In past interviews, Sydorov has said he favors adaptability and rapid maneuvers to defeat the Russian army – and that the critical characteristics for a successful commander are tactical knowledge, a clear head, professionalism, and pragmatism.

 

Ruslan Shevchuk

Ruslan Shevchuk, also believed to be around the age of 40, is another alum of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade whose first combat experience came during the Russian invasion of 2014.

As a company commander, he led a brigade detachment to force-on-force NATO training in Hohenfels, Germany, in which Ukrainian troops – at the time considered untrained and unskilled by some NATO militaries – reportedly impressed their hosts.

Shevchuk assumed command of the 93rd Brigade in 2021, and in the early days of Russia’s second invasion the brigade’s repeated ambushing of Russian armored columns helped nullify Russia’s blitzkrieg tactics in a number of battles near Kharkiv in the spring of 2022.

Following his participation in operations on the southern front in 2024, Zelensky promoted Shevchuk to corps leadership in June 2025 as one of the first veteran, “new generation” AFU officers to take over an area command. 

His present formation, the 15th Corps, is in western Ukraine. In interviews, Shevchuk has argued that combined arms and the concentration of firepower, along with skilled and motivated soldiers, are the key to battlefield success.

Oleksandr Pyvnenko

Oleksandr Pyvnenko, 40, was promoted from the rank of brigadier to that of major general and will remain in charge of the National Guard of Ukraine, under his command since July 8, 2023. At the time he was the youngest brigadier general in Ukraine’s history. 

Pyvnenko is from a military family and his initial military education was as a tank officer. A lifelong athlete, he joined the Omega special operations group in 2014 and saw extensive action through 2018 in missions on both sides of the lines. 

He assumed command of a commando brigade in 2022 and participated in heavy battles in the Kharkiv region, before later being wounded in the defense of Bakhmut. 

On assuming command of the National Guard – an organization often tasked with major conventional war operations despite its local defense mission – Pyvnenko prioritized standardized training, improved logistics, and wider fielding of drones.