Valerii Zaluzhnyi was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine before the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation he has been one of the key military figures in the world Zaluzhnyi's name has become a symbol of resistance and courage RBC-Ukraine collected facts from the military leader's biography and his statements about the war information from the portal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Fyodorovych Zaluzhnyi was born into a military family and his entire childhood was spent among people in uniform he started thinking about the military future at an early age Zaluzhnyi received his school education in his hometown - Novohrad-Volynskyi in the Zhytomyr region (now Zviahel) he studied at a Machine-Building Technical School Then he served and got an education in military institutions Zaluzhnyi graduated from the general military faculty of the Odesa Institute of Land Forces with honors he obtained a second higher education at the National Defense Academy of Ukraine He received a gold medal for studying the combat use of mechanized and tank units Zaluzhny graduated from Ivan Cherniakhovskyi National Defense University of Ukraine with distinction he was awarded the transitional sword of the Queen of Great Britain - as the best graduate of the operational-strategic level the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces received a civilian master's degree in international relations from the Ostroh Academy Valerii Zaluzhnyi defended his doctoral thesis at the Odesa Law Academy and obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Although the topic of the dissertation is classified it is known that the scientific work is related to military discipline Photo: Zaluznyj has several higher educations in the military field (facebook.com/vzaluznyj) Zaluzhnyi began his path in the military field when Ukraine was already independent unlike a large number of Ukrainian military leaders who served under the USSR Zaluzhnyi passed all stages of his military career he was appointed chief of staff and first deputy of the 24th separate mechanized brigade in Yavoriv he commanded the 51st separate mechanized brigade Zaluzhnyi has experience serving in command positions in all operational commands of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine : Valerii Zaluzhnyi was appointed as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine He succeeded Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak he was awarded the rank of General of the Armed Forces (highest military rank) Zaluzhnyi has been at war with Russia since 2014 he was appointed as deputy commander of sector C in the Donetsk region He led almost all military formations created in Donbas he was the first deputy commander of the United Forces - chief of staff of the Armed Forces Zaluzhnyi commanded a battalion in the battles near Debaltseve the Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated the village of Pivdenne near Horlivka controlled by the Russian occupiers After receiving the rank of major general in 2017 he was in no hurry to transfer to staff positions and continued his work Photo: Zaluzhnyi is a supporter of NATO standards (facebook.com/GeneralStaff.ua) Zaluzhnyi is a supporter of NATO standards after being appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces he stated that his goal is the transformation of the Ukrainian armed forces "The general course of reforming the Armed Forces in accordance with the principles and standards of NATO remains irreversible in the outlook and attitude towards people I would like you to turn your face to the people My attitude towards people has not changed throughout my service," said Zaluzhnyi they wrote about Zaluzhnyi that the general is the personification of a new generation of Ukrainian officers which was formed during the 8-year war in Donbas and NATO exercises The Armed Forces managed to change the authoritarian essence that was formed by the Soviet military union The military leader always advocated modern approaches in combat training Zaluzhnyi said that reports near the map and writing combat orders had already outlived themselves Zaluzhnyi's few interviews and statements always become an event in the information space The general spoke about the danger of full-scale Russian aggression as early as 2021 "The threat of full-scale aggression exists Our task as the Armed Forces is not to wait for manna from heaven And we do everything for this," Zaluzhnyi said in the summer of 2021 Already after the beginning of the aggression of the Russian Federation in February 2022 the military commander in an interview with Time talked about the preparation for the invasion of Russian troops and how he decided to move equipment to confuse the enemy "I was afraid that we would lose the element of surprise We needed the enemy to think that we are all deployed at our usual bases watching TV and writing posts on Facebook," Zaluzhnyi noted He told The Economist at the end of 2022 that the experience of previous years had prepared Ukraine for a full-scale invasion "And the most important experience we had and which we practice almost like a religion is that Russians and any other enemies must be killed On the anniversary of the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation Zaluzhnyi talked about his vision of the future victory the liberation of the entire occupied territory of Ukraine Ukraine as a state must do everything to ensure that everything that started on February 24 He added that for this it is necessary to have an ultra-modern and combat-capable army which will repel Russia's desire to attack again Photo: Zaluzhnyi calls on partners to provide increased military support (facebook.com/CinCAFU) the general has repeatedly emphasized that he knows how to defeat Russia Zaluzhnyi did not hide that he was annoyed by statements about a slow counteroffensive In a summer interview with The Washington Post and without a full supply of the necessary weapons The Economist published an article by Zaluzhnyi in which he noted the beginning of a new war stage - "positional" which is characterized by grueling battles but there is a way out of the situation – innovative approaches can turn a "positional" war into a "maneuverable" one "Positional warfare is a protracted war that carries huge risks for the Ukrainian armed forces and the state we will need all these things: air superiority significantly improved means of radio-electronic and counter-battery warfare and the ability to mobilize and train more reserves," Zaluzhnyi stated Valery Zaluzhnyi is known as the 'Iron General' That's how he was called in the Politico article The article states that the military commander is "a commander who will become a legendary figure in the history of Ukraine" as the successes of the Ukrainian army surprised the whole world Photo: Time magazine cover with Valery Zaluzhny (twitter.com/TIME) Time magazine placed a portrait of the main Ukrainian military officer on the cover the Ukrainian army would hardly have achieved such success without its commander Zaluzhnyi became the first Ukrainian military man to appear on the front page of Time The general decided to donate the unexpectedly received money to the needs of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi became a model of stability and courage from the beginning of the war Streets in Pokrov (the Dnipropetrovsk region) and Stara Syniava (the Khmelnytskyi region) were renamed in his honor Valerii Zaluzhnyi has been married for over 20 years his wife Olena worked as a financier in a bank The older one became a soldier and serves in the Kyiv garrison the younger one is a student at a medical university.