President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 19 appointed Pavlo Yelizarov as the new deputy commander of Ukraine’s Air Force.
The announcement comes amid a wave of new appointments and dismissals in Ukraine’s military and government at the start of 2026.
Yelizarov’s new role is part of a plan to bolster Ukraine’s air defense strategy, Zelensky said.
“There will be a new approach to the use of air defense systems by the Air Force — concerning mobile fire groups, interceptor drones, and other means of ‘small’ air defense,” Zelensky said when naming Yelizarov deputy commander.
“This system will be transformed.”
Newly appointed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov expanded on the plans to improve air defense operations and the key role Yelizarov will play in the process.
“Our task is to build an anti-drone dome over Ukraine. A system that does not react after the fact, but destroys the threat even during its approach,” Fedorov said.
“For this, we need people who have already proven their effectiveness in modern warfare. (Yelizarov) is one of them.”
Yelizarov will be responsible for developing small air defense systems and drone interception, Fedorov said, scaling up current networks to a nationwide air shield. The defense minister pointed to Yelizarov’s record of success leading a National Guard drone unit that destroyed over $13 billion worth of Russian military equipment.
Every fifth Russian tank destroyed by Ukraine is a result of Yelizarov’s unit, Fedorov said.
Yelizarov, a businessman and television producer, joined Ukraine’s territorial defense after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. He later transferred to the Special Operations Forces (SSO), where he began assembling drones. He formed his own drone unit, the Lasar Group, under the National Guard.
Before the war, Yelizarov produced the popular political talk show Svoboda Slova (Freedom of Speech), which had a rocky relationship with Zelensky and his Servant of the People party. Following the dismissal of former Presidential Office Head Andriy Yermak in November 2025, Zelensky’s office has reportedly been pursuing a “new policy of openness and engagement,” including meeting with people once seen as rivals or opposition figures.
Yelizarov’s appointment comes as Ukraine faces its most difficult winter, with Russian aerial attacks pummeling the country’s energy infrastructure and plunging entire cities into cold and darkness.
Russian barrages have escalated dramatically over the past year. According to Fedorov, Russia launched up to 100,000 drones at Ukraine in 2025, damaging residential buildings and critical infrastructure. The year 2025 was also the most deadly year for civilians since the 2022, when the full-scale war began.
Zelensky said on Jan. 16 that Ukraine had received a major air defense package — but claimed it arrived when several of the surface-to-air missile defense systems in the country had been left “without missiles.”
As the new deputy, Yelizarov will support Air Force Commander Anatolii Kryvonozhko, who was appointed in August 2025. Fedorov also said on Jan. 19 that more appointments will be announced “soon.”
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