The museum represents the most complete collection in Ukraine of exhibits dedicated to the armed struggle of Ukrainians for their statehood and independence at different times.

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The museum was established in October 1995 under the name Central Museum of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and became the main museum institution of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

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Initially, the museum was departmental: about the army and for the military, but in 1998 it was opened to the general public. The first public exhibition “Armed Forces of Ukraine: Origins (1917-1991)” was opened on June 14, 1998 with the participation of Elena Ott-Skoropadskaya, daughter of Hetman of the Ukrainian State Pavel Skoropadsky. Mrs. Elena gave the awards, documents and personal belongings of her father to the museum. These relics, as well as the flag of the 3rd Iron Division of the UNR Army, transferred to Ukraine in 1992 by Patriarch Mstislav (Skrypnyk) and other unique artifacts brought from overseas by the last Ukrainian veterans from Canada and the United States, laid the foundation for the future collection of the museum.

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Part of the collection consists of museum items from the former Museum of the History of Troops of the Kiev Military District, which existed under the Kiev House of Officers, in 1967-1991.

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On January 15, 2010, by the Decree of the President of Ukraine, the museum was given national status and renamed to the National Military History Museum of Ukraine.

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In addition to the central museum in Kyiv, the NVIM also includes 6 branches: Volyn Regional Museum of Ukrainian troops and military equipment (m. Lutsk), Museum of Strategic Missile Troops (Pervomaisk), Memorial Complex “In Memory of Heroes Krut” (p. Memorable, Chernihiv region), Museum “Heroes of the Dnieper” (Ivano-Frankivsk), Museum of Heavy Bomber Aviation (m. Poltava) and the Central Naval Museum of Ukraine (Sevastopol — temporarily under occupation).

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Since 2014, the National Museum of Military History of Ukraine has almost doubled its expositions and updated its exhibition series by 90%. Since January 2014 — the tragic events of the Revolution of Dignity, which took place near the walls of the museum, the staff collected exhibits dedicated to the latest history of Ukraine. The exposition was replenished with items from the Maidan and Crimea, from Slavyansk and Zelenopil.

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On August 31, 2014, NVIMU became a co-founder of the Humanitarian Project Mission “Evacuation-200" (“Black Tulip”), to search, exhume, export and identify the dead Ukrainian defenders. At the same time, thousands of exhibits were removed from the battlefields near Ilovaisk and Savur-Mohyla, Donetsk airport and Debaltsev, which became the basis of the exposition on the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2014-2015.

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At the same time, the museum was replenished with items dedicated to the Cossack era, the struggle for the Independence of Ukraine in 1917-1921, the service of Ukrainians in the armies of the empires of the XIX — early XX centuries. Therefore, the exposition of the museum began to fully cover such topics as the history of military affairs on the territory of Ukraine from the Scythian era to the present; historical traditions and modernity of the Ukrainian army; service of Ukrainians in the armies of other state entities that existed on the territory of Ukraine; evolution and development of weapons, military equipment knowledge, military symbolism.

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In February-May 2022, the museum staff of NVIMU not only saved historical exhibits, but also collected new ones in the de-occupied territories. Already on May 8, 2022, the first exhibition about the course of the war after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine opened, which is now part of the main exposition and is constantly developing.

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In addition, we managed to collect the largest museum collection of destroyed Russian military equipment in Ukraine, which is now exhibited not only in Kyiv (on Mikhailovsky Square and Serf Lane) and our branches, but also in a number of European countries (Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany).