Zaluzhny - 50: five interesting facts about the legendary commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

July 8, the 500th day of the large-scale Russian invasion, marks the birthday of a person who plays a significant role in rebuffing the aggressor - Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny, who turned 50 today.

The future general was born in 1973 in Novograd-Volynsky (Zvyagel), in a military family. Even in the first grade of school, he announced that he would become a military man. He went through all the stages of military service: platoon commander, training platoon commander, combat platoon commander, company commander, cadet company commander, battalion commander… Chernyakhovsky. For this he was awarded the transitional sword of the Queen of Great Britain. In 2017, he was awarded the rank of Major General. In the same year, he became Chief of Staff, First Deputy Commander of the Operational Command “West” of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. From 2018 to 2019 - Chief of the Joint Operational Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - First Deputy Commander of the Joint Forces. Since 2019 - Commander of the Sever Operational Command. He became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine six months before the large-scale invasion of Russia - in the summer of 2021.

So far, Valery Zaluzhny is very popular not only in Ukraine, but also in the world. So, in May last year, he entered the list of the 100 most influential people of 2022 according to Time magazine (by the way, he became the first Ukrainian military man to appear on the cover of this publication), and in October of the same year he was recognized as one of the 25 most influential Ukrainian military according to NV.

And the publication “Politico” called the Ukrainian head office “an iron general”, who will become a “legendary figure” and surprise the world with the successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This happened after the Ukrainian soldiers forced the Reshists to flee from the Kiev region towards the Belarusians, from where they started moving towards the capital of Ukraine in February 2022.

This year it became known that the general received a huge inheritance - a million dollars, which was bequeathed to him by an American of Ukrainian passage Grigory Stepanets. He directed all these funds to a special account of the National Bank to raise funds for the needs of the army. By the way, the general’s autographs also help to save money for the army. So, he immediately responded to the request of journalists to put his signature under the calendar, which was made by Channel 5.

The military recently released a photo showing Zaluzhny and his colleagues talking about something while looking at maps. Attentive Internet users noticed a patch “like in Star Wars” on the bulletproof vest of the commander-in-chief - either with Baby Yoda, or from Grog. The network immediately responded with a lot of memes.

By the way, Ukrainians did not remain indifferent to the birthday of Valery Zaluzhny, congratulating him on social networks.

And the orchestra of the 93rd brigade Kholodny Yar congratulated the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the song “Our Father Zaluzhny”.

The material “Zaluzhny on the threat of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia: “It doesn’t stop me at all” is available on the FACTS website.

Photo from the page of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in social networks