The article is devoted to the problem of development of empathic abilities of officers of the Armed Forces. An officer of the modern Armed Forces must be a holistic personality, capable of constant self-development and selfimprovement, with a certain set of moral qualities; his personality should be leadership-oriented, which includes the skills to lead subordinates, take responsibility for them and have a sufficient level of empathic abilities, manifested in empathy, interest in improving the moral and psychological condition of subordinate personnel and each subordinate individually. The concepts of personality, leadership and empathy as a communicative and organizational component of leadership qualities are covered. The level of empathy ability among the officers of a unit of a separate military unit is analyzed and recommendations for its increase are given. Regarding the problem of developing empathic abilities among officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, we can say that this topic is unfairly underestimated. This is due to the specifics of military-professional activities, which are clearly regulated by the statutory relationship. "Living by statute" implies the mandatory fulfillment of all its requirements, and does not provide any recommendations for the establishment of interpersonal relations in the military. However, as the experience of recent years has shown, the Armed Forces of Ukraine needed an immediate increase in mobilization resources, which led to conscription of Ukrainian troops, with different motivational factors, different levels of life experience, different age groups. Empathy is one of the important communicative and organizational components of leadership. The chief officer must have an average level of empathic abilities, which allows you to create the most comfortable psychological climate in the subordinate department, without violating military discipline. Analyzing the level of empathy on the example of one of the military units, we saw that not all officers have formed it enough, so it was suggested training exercises to improve it. We also stressed the importance of awareness of the participants about empathy, as well as its development in terms of its various components.