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Ukraine’s top general refuses request from Zelenskiy to step down
Personality clashes blamed for conflict between president and popular commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi
He blamed personality clashes for the conflict. “Personally I think this is a bad idea. There are not fundamental issues between them but Zelenskiy’s office has been concerned that Zaluzhnyi has been making political not military statements,” Goncharenko said.
- A couple of hours later, the defence ministry responded curtly: “Dear journalists, we immediately answer everyone: No, this is not true,” assuming that everybody reading understood what was being referred to.
- Goncharenko said Zelenskiy could dismiss Zaluzhnyi and replace him – a process that requires the support of the defence minister – after assessing the public and international reaction.
The most likely replacement would be Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, responsible for covert operations against Moscow. Budanov was touted earlier this year as a replacement for Oleksii Reznikov as defence minister, in another protracted dismissal saga that began with similar bouts of speculation.
It is not clear what an alternative military strategy would look like given Russia’s entrenched frontline positions, while Ukraine’s most urgent crisis is not the battlefield but persuading Congress to approve a $61bn military aid package that would secure a year or more’s weapons supply from the US.
- Democrats on Tuesday accused Republicans of being on the brink of deliberately collapsing a deal linking aid to Ukraine to a tightening of immigration policy at the US’s southern border in order to help Donald Trump’s election campaign.
- The French president, Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, urged European leaders to accelerate aid to Ukraine in a speech to Swedish military academy, saying the “costs … of a Russian victory are too high for all of us”.
- He warned: “There is no more security framework and architecture on our continent if there is a Russian victory.”
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Speculation has also swirled in Ukrainian media for months that Zaluzhnyi would be the only viable challenger to Zelenskiy for the presidency if fresh elections were to be called while the war continues and the general were to run.
Although Zaluzhnyi has never publicly said he would enter politics, informal Facebook posts showing photos of him with his wife were interpreted in Bankova – Ukraine’s equivalent of Downing Street – as a signal of intent.
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President Zelensky told the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces he was dismissing him but was forced to reverse his decision after pressure from senior military commanders and international partners.
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