Comments come as speculation continues president is preparing to fire commander of armed forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has admitted publicly for the first time that he is seeking to replace the country’s most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“A reset, a new beginning is necessary,” Zelensky told the Italian outlet Rai News in an interview broadcast on Sunday night, when asked about rumours of Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal.
Zaluzhnyi, who has led the armed forces since before Russia’s full-scale invasion, is a largely popular figure among soldiers and society at large, meaning replacing him could be a politically risky decision.
This would be a massive L for Zelensky. Non of the top analyst think it’s a good idea.
I suspect that Zelinskiy knows something the analyst don’t.
While I think Zelinskiy is an amazing leader, he’s not infallible. War time leaders, especially when locked into a (even if temporary) stalemate. Sometimes our thirst for constant progression outweighs the tactical advantage of holding and regrouping. Ukraine needs consistent, clear and unanimous leadership from both political and military leaders.
My personal guess is that Zaluzhnyi has some something bad (like corruption) that is about to become public, and Zelenskiy wants to be ahead of the curve in order to minimize the impact on the country’s defense. This is the only situation where this move would make sense to me, at least.
Or maybe Zaluzhnyi wants to step down?
But they have such comfortable armchairs they’re being generals from!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has admitted publicly for the first time that he is seeking to replace the country’s most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“A reset, a new beginning is necessary,” Zelensky told the Italian outlet Rai News in an interview broadcast on Sunday night, when asked about rumours of Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal.
At a meeting last Monday, Zelenskiy told Zaluzhnyi he planned to replace him, according to those with knowledge of the conversation, and offered the general a chance to resign.
As the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches, Ukraine is dealing with exhaustion among troops at the front and in society at large, as well as an increasingly less favourable international backdrop.
In recent weeks, the Russians have advanced to positions close to the outskirts of Avdiivka, an industrial city just outside Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia-backed forces since 2014.
At a campaign event last week, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, boasted that Moscow’s forces had seized “19 houses” on the outskirts of Avdiivka and were holding on to them.
The original article contains 517 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
