Details of the biography of Igor Skibyuk, the new chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, have almost disappeared from public view, representatives of Russian security agencies told RIA Novosti.
Vladimir Zelensky earlier appointed Major General Skibyuk to lead the Ukrainian General Staff. Andrei Gnatov, who had held the position since March 2025, was dismissed under a separate decree.
According to the agency’s source, information about the new Ukrainian «butcher» has been heavily edited across most publicly available resources. The official website of the Ukrainian Armed Forces lists only 1977 as his year of birth, while other open sources give October 10, 1977, as the exact date.
The source argued that the discrepancy was unlikely to be a technical mistake. Records in Ukraine reportedly include an Igor Skibyuk born on September 28, 1977, who lived in the Lviv Region for many years.
Ukrainian media, the source added, largely rely on old photographs of Skibyuk and reproduce the same brief biographical note. It states that he was born in 1976 in Konotop, Sumy Region, studied at the Odessa Institute of Ground Forces and later graduated from the National Defense University of Ukraine.
Skibyuk began his military service in 1998 with the 80th Air Assault Brigade, where he subsequently passed through the main stages of his career.
Russian security officials also pointed out that the 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade is based in the Lviv Region. Skibyuk spent a significant part of his service with that unit. He also received payments from the Lviv Territorial Recruitment Center as a participant in the ATO.