Major General Ihor Luniov has been appointed as Commander of Ukraine's Special Operations Forces (SOF), Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Defense Ministry Viktor Muzhenko said.

"The selection commission had been considering several candidates for the position of the SOF Commander. There were three of them. And the Defense Ministry's Higher Examination Commission was able to meet with two candidates, the third was absent due to health reasons and was no longer considered [for the position] because of subjective assessment of his capabilities and prospects. There were two following candidates: General Ihor Vasyliovych Luniov and Colonel Serhiy Hryhorovych Kryvonis. The selection commission chose Major General Luniov as the main candidate for this position and the defense minister has already appointed him to this post," Muzhenko said in an interview to Ukraine's Military TV. The fragment of the interview was posted on the General Staff's Facebook account.

Muzhenko said that the main task for the coming year was to create the SOF training center.

"The [SOF] command has already been created, however, a lot of work still needs to be done for this authority to have capabilities to command respective military units," Muzhenko said.