Pavel Muraveika

Pavel Nikolayevich Muraveiko (born 26 September 1971) is a Belarusian major general who has been the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus and First Deputy Minister of Defense since 2024. Prior to that he was Chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff from 2013 to 2022 and First Deputy Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus from 2022 to 2024.

Early life and education Muraveiko was born on 26 September 1971 in Maryina Horka, in the Minsk Region of the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. He graduated from the Minsk Higher Military-Political School in 1992. In January 2020 he and Major General Vadim Denisenko, the head of the country's Special Operations Forces, were commended by President Lukashenko for their contributions to improving the defenses of Belarus.

Muraveiko was the head of the Main Operations Directorate from 2013 until 10 February 2022, when he became First Deputy State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus.

Chief of General Staff Major General Pavel Muraveiko was appointed as Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Belarus and First Deputy Minister of Defense by President Alexander Lukashenko on 23 May 2024.

In July 2024 he said that Belarus is willing and capable of using nuclear weapons in its defense. Earlier that year Russia stationed its own nuclear weapons in Belarusian territory.

In December 2024 Muraveiko unveiled the military's plan for developing the defenses of Belarus from 2026 to 2030 at a session of the Security Council, which was approved by President Lukashenko. At the same meeting, Lukashenko told Muraveiko to prepare the military for the deployment of Russian Oreshnik missiles in Belarus.