Cabinet of Ministers appoints combat pilot as head of Kherson RSA

Kherson region has a new district head with combat experience, a degree and years of service in the army. The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the appointment of Serhiy Honchar, who rose from a pilot in Afghanistan to a helicopter commander in the war against Russia.

The government's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, announced the personnel decision.

The appointment was approved during a Cabinet meeting on April 3. According to Most's dossier, the new head of the Kherson District State Administration has a solid military and civilian education: he graduated from the aviation school of pilots, received a degree in psychology, law, security and logistics, and became a PhD in public administration. In his research, he studied the mechanisms of personnel policy at the regional level in the context of decentralization.

Sergiy Honchar 's professional career is closely linked to his military service. From the late 1980s to 2000, he served in the army as a pilot and navigator, and took part in combat operations in Afghanistan. Later, he held senior positions in the security, banking and maritime sectors, and worked in educational institutions.

After 2014, he rejoined the military: he was a helicopter commander, deputy brigade commander, and worked in the Land Forces Command. He took part in combat operations in eastern Ukraine in the ATO zone.

Since 2021, Honchar has worked as the first deputy head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, and since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, he has returned to the army. Until 2025, he served in army aviation units, including as a helicopter commander and senior assistant flight director.

For his service, he received a number of state awards, including the Order "For Courage" of the III degree, the Order of Danylo Halytskyi, as well as the insignia of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Also, the State Property Fund of Ukraine plans to change the management of the Odesa Port Plant, offering Konstantin Shabunyaev, a former prosecutor from Kherson, to head it. The decision on the appointment and dismissal of the current director is to be made at a remote shareholders' meeting.

Анна Бальчінос