Dmytro Delyatytskyi

Lieutenant Colonel Delyatytskyi was the commander of Ukraine's only marine unit, the 1st Marine Battalion, near Feodosia, Crimea, in 2014. When the Russian Federation annexed Crimea, Delyatytskyi led about two companies of marines that kept their oath of loyalty to Ukraine back to the Ukrainian mainland, where they were based in Mykolaiv.^[2] This was after they were captured and briefly detained by the Russian forces, who let them go.^[3]

Over next few years the Naval Infantry was expanded and one of the first units that was formed was the 36th Marine Brigade.^[2] It was established on the basis of the Navy's 36th Coastal Defense Brigade, and Delyatytskyi served as the commander of the new marine brigade from 2015 until 2018. The unit consisted of the Ukrainian marines that had left Crimea, former members of the original Coastal Defense Brigade, and volunteers that joined after it was formed.^[4]

In the spring of 2018, when the Ukrainian Navy established a new Marine Corps Command and began reforming the Ukrainian Naval Infantry along the lines of the United States Marine Corps, Delyatytskyi became its deputy commander.^[2][5] He was promoted to colonel at some point, and then to brigadier general on 6 December 2021^[6] and to major general on 24 August 2023.^[7] In 2023 he became the director of the Odesa Military Academy, his alma mater.

On 11 February 2024 Delyatytskyi became the commander of the Ukrainian Marine Corps after his predecessor Yurii Sodol was made the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces.

• Cross of Military Merit (20 February 2025)^[8]
• Order of Danylo Halytsky (21 August 2014)^[9]
• Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 1st class (24 May 2022)^[10]
• Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 2nd class (26 March 2022)^[11]
• Order of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, 3rd class (17 May 2019)^[12]
• Medal "10 years of the Armed Forces of Ukraine"
• Medal "For Honest Service" 2nd class
• Medal "For Honest Service" 3rd class
• Anniversary Medal "90 years of the Naval Flag of Ukraine"