Head of defense planning department of the special operations administration. Born on July 13, 1972 in Rivne.

Colonel Petro Yakymets was directly involved in planning special operations aimed to search and destroy groups of Russia-backed militants throughout Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Thanks to his meticulous preparation and professional actions, the militants were inflicted severe casualties, while Ukrainian troops returned from their missions without losses in manpower, weapons or military hardware.

Colonel Yakymets was awarded the Order of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (third-class) and the Order for Courage (third-class) for his personal courage and heroism, while defending the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, by the Decrees No. 599/2014 and No.708/2015 (dated July 19, 2014 and September 8, 2014 respectively) of the President of Ukraine “On decorating with Ukraine’s state awards.”