Taras Chmut

Taras Mykolaiovych Chmut (; born 13 October 1991) is a Ukrainian sergeant, volunteer, and military analyst who has worked as the head of the Come Back Alive charity since 2020. He previously served as a military servicemember of the Ukrainian Marine Corps from 2015 to 2017, serving in the War in Donbas. Representative of the Ministry of Defence on the Supervisory Board of the Defence Procurement Agency (October 2024 – January 2025; since February 2026).

Early life and career Taras Mykolaiovych was born in the city of Korostyshiv on 13 October 1991. His father was a businessman, while his mother was an employee of the United Nations Development Programme. At the age of 16, he founded the Ukrainian Military Portal. He is a graduate of the National Aviation University, specialising in Complex Pilot-Navigational Equipment.

On October 14, 2008, Chmut co-founded Militarnyi as a social media group. Militarnyi is now Ukraine’s most prominent military news website, with over 2 million unique visitors every month.

War in Donbas Following the beginning of the War in Donbas in 2014, Chmut began volunteering to assist the Armed Forces of Ukraine through the Ukrainian Military Portal. Following his graduation from the National Aviation University, he joined the Ukrainian Marine Corps in 2015, becoming a member of the 501st Separate Naval Infantry Battalion. He also continued to publicly report on problems within the Armed Forces, leading to a strained relationship with his commanders and his eventual redeployment outside of the Donbas in September 2015. After being placed in a staff job in Mykolaiv, Chmut protested his redeployment, and transferred to the 137th Marine Battalion in May 2016. In the 137th Battalion, he received training from British and American instructors in military theory and the usage of unmanned aerial vehicles, respectively. He also participated in the military exercises, and travelled to Lithuania, where he received further training.

Following his return from Lithuania, Chmut again began fighting in the Donbas, and served two tours of duty, in October 2016 and June 2017. at the rank of sergeant. At the time of his departure, he was also the commander of the 137th Battalion's intelligence detachment. a purchase Chmut later stated was responsible for maintaining Ukraine's independence in the early period of the war.

On August 3, 2022, Taras Chmut, on behalf of the Come Back Alive charity, signed a memorandum of further partnership with Baykar's CEO Haluk Bayraktar.

On December 7, 2022, at the invitation of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, he testified at a hearing on the Ukrainian volunteer movement before the U.S. Congress. He discussed the foundation’s support for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the establishment of cooperation with American organizations. Additionally, he called for Ukraine to be removed from the list of countries subject to crime control export restrictions.

In November 2025, Taras Chmut, director of the Come Back Alive charity, announced that the foundation had received the largest known donation in support of Ukraine's Defense Forces, amounting to 19 billion hryvnias (approximately US$460 million). According to Chmut, the funds were provided by an anonymous donor from a European country and are designated for the procurement of weapons, military equipment, FPV drones, the development of aerial reconnaissance capabilities, and logistical support. Taras Chmut described the project as unprecedented and expressed his intention to scale up this model of cooperation.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2026, Taras Chmut said that the foundation had signed around ten earmarked grant agreements with various countries, ranging from small to very large. Some had already been successfully implemented, others were at various stages of implementation, and some had been signed that year, reflecting an increasingly dynamic process. He noted that the number of countries approaching the foundation was also growing, as governments exchanged experiences and saw that such cooperation was working well for others.

In February 2026, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Taras Chmut as the representative of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine on the Supervisory Board of the Defence Procurement Agency. The decision was made upon the submission of Ukraine's Minister of Dedence, Mykhailo Fedorov.

Military analysis Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Chmut has regularly served as a military analyst and commentator in Ukrainian and international media. His commentary has focused on the evolution of modern warfare, military procurement, and defence policy.

In September 2023, Taras Chmut told The Wall Street Journal that much of the Western armor supplied to Ukraine was underperforming on the battlefield because it had been designed for low- to medium-intensity conflicts rather than all-out war. He argued that Western allies should shift focus toward delivering simpler, cheaper systems in greater quantities — a request Ukraine has repeatedly made. In 2024, he spoke in favour of replacing temporary command structures, including operational-tactical groupings and tactical groups, with permanent corps-level structures.

In 2025, in a comment to The Financial Times, Taras Chmut described the area near the frontline as a "kill zone," stating that warfare had "changed in a radical way" and that the "kill zone" continues to grow every month. He added that many Europeans still find it difficult to understand the extent of these changes. He also received the Defender of the Motherland Medal on 23 August 2022 for his efforts to strengthen the Ukrainian military, and was further decorated with the award by the Ukrainian Catholic University in 2023.