Navigate the meetingColonel Ihor Obolenskyi is the Commander of the 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine “Khartiia” — a group of forces that currently comprises six brigades and two regiments. He is a Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest state honor, awarded in 2026. Ihor Obolenskyi began his military career following graduation from the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Military Institute of Missile Forces and Artillery. He holds master's degrees in law and agronomy. Before his military service, he held senior management positions in business. From 2014, he served in an artillery brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and later in the Omega special unit. In 2015, he was appointed Battalion Commander of the newly established NGU Brigade “Rubizh”, built to NATO standards. His unit took part in combat operations for Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donetsk Region. In 2019, Obolenskyi left active service and returned to the private sector, working at MHP and Agrotrade. He now applies the management experience he gained there in a military context. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he returned to the front, leading the volunteer territorial community formation "Khartiia", based on which the 13th Operational Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine “Khartiia” was established in March 2023, with Obolenskyi appointed commander. The brigade has a record of successful defensive and offensive operations, including the liberation of 200 hectares of territory north of Kharkiv — an operation that featured the first fully robotized assault in history. In April 2025, Colonel Obolenskyi took command of the 2nd Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine, formed around the “Khartiia” Brigade and expanded with four additional NGU brigades. In the years that followed, the corps also established its own artillery brigade, an assault regiment, and an unmanned systems regiment. Since autumn 2025, Khartiia Corps has been conducting the Kupiansk Operation — aimed at liberating territory in the northeast of Kharkiv Oblast. Colonel Obolenskyi planned the operation under the supervision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and the National Guard Commander, Oleksandr Pivnenko.
«Regrettably, there are still illusions in the world that you can talk to Moscow or draw some red lines due to which Moscow will, with time, become milder or inclined to reconciliation. Without illusions, if we want to hear someday, 'At last there is peace, just peace in Ukraine,' then even today we should hear that 'Ukraine has become strong enough; enough, namely, to win.»