Jonas Vytautas Žukas

Jonas V. Žukas (2015)

Jonas Vytautas Žukas (born June 1, 1962 in Kaunas ) is a Lithuanian lieutenant general a. D. He was military commander in chief of the Lithuanian Army from July 2014 and previously u. a. Army commander and military representative of his home country to NATO and the EU .

Life

Jonas Vytautas Žukas was born in Kaunas, the second largest city in what was then the Lithuanian SSR . From 1985 to 1991 he graduated from the Faculty of History at Vilnius University .

Military career

In the year of his graduation, Žukas was appointed major in the Department of National Defense ( Lithuanian : Krašto apsaugos departamentas ), the forerunner of today's Ministry of Defense . After moving to the armed forces currently being rebuilt, he attended the command academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg from 1992 to 1994 . Subsequently, he was employed with the rank of lieutenant colonel as chief of staff of the Geležinis Vilkas infantry brigade . A year later he was appointed their commanders in 1995 and promoted to colonel in 1997 . From 2001 he worked as a military attaché in Berlin. In addition to Germany, he was also responsible for Austria, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. From 2004 he was commander of the training command ( Lithuanian Mokymo ir doktrinų valdyba ) of the Lithuanian armed forces.

In 2006 and 2007 he attended the NATO Defense College in Rome, which was followed by a promotion to brigadier general on November 23, 2007 . In this rank, Jonas Vytautas Žukas was appointed commander of the Lithuanian Army on April 23, 2008 (which he had been in charge of since 2007). In 2010 he was promoted to major general. As of August 6, 2012, the General was the representative of the Lithuanian Armed Forces to NATO and the EU. In 2014, President Dalia Grybauskaitė appointed him the new Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (confirmed by Parliament on June 26 and ceremoniously inducted into office on July 24). Less than a year later, on June 22, 2015, he was promoted to lieutenant general. After the end of his five-year service, he was replaced by Valdemaras Rupšys as army chief in July 2019 .

After retiring from the army, Žukas became President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief adviser on national security .

Private

The general is married and has one son. In addition to Lithuanian, he speaks English, German and Russian.

Awards

Jonas Vytautas Žukas received the following significant domestic and foreign awards:

	Knight of the Order of the Vytis Cross (1998)
	Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2000)
	Grand Cross of the North Star Order (2015)
	Grand Cross of the Westhard Order (2016)
	Grand Officer of the Order of the Vytis Cross (2018)
	Commander Legion of Merit (2018)

He was also awarded various orders of the Lithuanian and allied armed forces.

Web links

Commons : Jonas Vytautas Žukas  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on the website of the Lithuanian Army (English, Lithuanian)
• Biography on the NATO website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ President V. Adamkus bestowed higher military ranks , online report on the website of the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense of November 8, 2007, accessed on November 27, 2016 (English)
2. ↑ Press release of the Lithuanian Armed Forces of June 22, 2015, accessed on June 23, 2015 (English).
3. ↑ Overview of the national security advisers on the website of the President of Lithuania, accessed on September 30, 2019 (English).

predecessor	Office	successor
Arvydas Pocius	Kariuomenės vadas 2014–2019	Valdemaras Rupšys