National Defense University of Ukraine

It traces some of its heritage to the Second Kyiv Military Infantry and Nikolaevskoe Artillery schools (Russian: Второе Киевское военное пехотное и Николаевское артиллерийское училища) that were opened in Kyiv during World War I in 1914.

The Kyiv Nikolaevskoe Artillery School was established in the building that today belongs to the Higher Specialized Court of Ukraine (on criminal and civil issues).

With the 1919 Soviet invasion of Ukraine (see Ukrainian–Soviet War), the school was transformed into the Kyiv Artillery courses, while the Infantry School was named after the Workers of Red Zamoskvorechye. In May–July 1920 the artillery courses were forced to relocate to Poltava due to advance of Polish-Ukrainian troops and Petr Vrangel's Forces. In Poltava the courses were merged with the Odesa Artillery courses into the Fourth Kyiv Artillery Courses.

In 1922 the courses were renamed into the Fourth Artillery School and in 1933 were named after Pavel Pavlovich Lebedev, a Russian Hero of the Russian Civil War. In 1935 the school was renamed into the First Artillery School of Lebedev and in February 1941 had its honorific changed to the 1st Artillery School "Sergei Kirov" (in honor of the assassinated Chairman of the Leningrad City Party Committee). During the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the school was evacuated to Krasnoyarsk and returned to Kyiv on in September 1944. In 1958 it was renamed into the Kyiv Higher Engineer School of Artillery and in 1973 into the Kyiv Higher Engineer School of Missile Rockets. In 1974 the school became a Kyiv branch of the Ground Forces Air Defence Military Artillery Academy. In 1977 it was transformed further into the Kyiv Military Academy of Ground Forces Air Defence.[1]

With fall of the Soviet Union in 1992, the Ground Forces Air Defence Military Academy became the Academy of Ukrainian Armed Forces which in 1999 was renamed into the Ukrainian Academy of Defence. In 2008 the academy was transformed into a university. 5 years later, it was given the honorific of "Ivan Chernyakhovsky", in honor of the Ukrainian-born Soviet general of the army (The youngest ever to hold this rank).[2] This was revoked in June 2023 by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.[3]