The man nominated to be Ukraine’s new defense minister is steeped in experience with special forces, drone technology, and the new ways of warfare.But Yevhen Khmara has stepped into a role where he’ll need the political skills to manage potentially tense relations with the Ukrainian general staff amid ongoing protests against the removal of his predecessor, Mykhaylo Fedorov.“We know that he comes from special ops with a very good track record,” Tymofiy Mylovanov, head of the Kyiv School of Economics, told RFE/RL, describing Khmara as “direct, straight, very technocratic…some people from the government have a crush on him.”One former officer of Ukraine's security service, the SBU, said that Khmara spent 90 percent of his time at or near the front line.
“He knows how to cross the contact line, go in, carry out operations in the occupied territories, and return; he knows how drone units operate,” Ivan Stupak, now a military analyst, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.Oleh Rybachuk, head of the Center for Joint Action, a think tank, also underlined Khmara’s combat credentials.“He is not a political hack, he is principled, he is pro-Ukrainian, he created the special forces unit, Alfa," he told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. But, he added, “the Defense Ministry is much more complicated.”Political BattlesThat complexity is underlined by Fedorov's fate.Fedorov was pushed out by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week amid a bitter row with Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskiy.
