Defense Minister Rustem Umyerov appointed Vadym Sukharevskyi as commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
This was reported in the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On February 10, Sukharevskyi was appointed one of the deputies of the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi. He was to be responsible for the direction of unmanned systems and the development of the use of drones.
On February 6, President Volodymyr Zelensky instructed to work out the issue of creating a separate type of forces within the structure of the Armed Forces — the Unmanned Systems Forces. Their goal is to increase the capabilities of the Armed Forces in the use of unmanned and robotic air, sea and ground systems, as well as to ensure readiness for their intended use.
Sukharevskii noted that the formation of the Unmanned Systems Forces will improve the training of drone pilots and their rotation at the front.
Vadym Sukharevskyi (call sign "Borsuk") hails from Transcarpathia. He served in the 80th separate air mobile brigade (now the airborne assault brigade), and was also the commander of the 503rd OBMP stationed in Mariupol.
Subsequently, Sukharevskiy became the chief of staff of the 35th separate marine infantry brigade and the commander of the 59th separate motorized infantry brigade, which, after the beginning of the large-scale invasion, carried out combat missions in Mykolayiv region and Kherson region.
In 2004, Sukharevskyi became the youngest Ukrainian peacekeeper in the Peacekeeping Mission in Iraq. There he took part in the battle for the city of El Kut.
He is also called the officer who in 2014 fired the first shot at the Russian invaders in the undeclared war. On April 13, 2014, near the village of Semenivka, near the then-occupied Sloviansk, he took part in the first battle with the occupiers, violating the order not to open fire.
After that, he participated in the defense of the Luhansk airport, the liberation of Sloviansk and Georgiivka, and a raid by the Ukrainian military to demarcate the territory controlled by Ukraine and the lands seized by the occupiers.
