Pavel Semyonovich Rybalko (Russian: Па́вел Семёнович Рыба́лко, Ukrainian: Павло́ Семе́нович Риба́лко; 23 October 1894 – 28 August 1948) was a commander of armoured troops in the Red Army during and following World War II.

During that period, he studied intensively the principles of modern armoured warfare, as developed by the western theorists (Generals von Kleist, Guderian and Fuller), as well as the doctrine of "deep operations," as theorized by Triandafillov and Tukhachevsky.

That included Operation Star in February, which was aimed at the liberation of Kharkov, one of the first major Soviet cities to be reconquered by the Red Army.

Operations (Zhitomir-Berdichev in December 1943 to January 1944 and Proskurov-Chernivtsi in March to April 1944) succeeded at least in the complete liberation of Ukraine by the end of the summer.

Still in command of his 3rd Guards Tank Army, Rybalko took a major place in the various operations that were launched in North Ukraine: Galicia (summer 1944) and Silesia (late 1944 and winter 1945).