Acting President of Ukraine, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Turchynov has appointed Viktor Hvozd as head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.

A corresponding decree was signed and published on the acting president's Web site on February 27.

Hvozd holds an academic degree in both military science and law. He was born in the Ternopil region in 1959. He holds degrees from Kyiv Higher Combined-Arms Military Command, Lviv University (law), the Military Diplomatic Academy, and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Boston, U.S.A.

Between 1977 and 2010 he served in the Armed Forces and participated in the United Nations peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia. He was Ukraine's military attache in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and represented the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in the Ukrainian permanent delegation to the United Nations. He was a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the UN Security Council and head of Ukrainian military intelligence.

Hvozd speaks five languages. He is married with two children.