Stepan Poltorak

Stepan Poltorak (Степан Полторак) is Minister of Defence of Ukraine from 14 October 2014, previously the commander of the Internal Troops of Ukraine and National Guard of Ukraine. Poltorak's rank is General of the army of Ukraine.

Biography
Poltorak was born on 11 February 1965 in the village Vesela Dolyna (located in the Tarutyne Raion, Odessa Oblast). He has served in the military since August 1983. Poltorak is a graduate from Ordzhonikidzevsky highest military command college of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR.

Poltorak is a Ph.D. In 2003 he successfully defended his thesis on "Pedagogical conditions of the skills of the commander unit in the future officers of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine".

In March 2002 Poltorak was appointed head of the Academy of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine in Kharkiv.

On 28 February 2014 acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov appointed Poltorak commander of the Internal Troops of Ukraine.

When the National Guard of Ukraine was reestablished on 13 March 2014 Poltorak became its first commander on 15 April 2014.

On 14 October 2014, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada approved Poltorak's appointment as Ukraine's Minister of Defence. , replacing Valeriy Heletey, who was appointed head of the State Security Administration after President Petro Poroshenko accepted his resignation.