As political turmoil intensifies in Ukraine, opposition leader calls for unity

KHERSON, Ukraine - As Ukraine steps up efforts to press for more military support for its conflict with Russia, political frictions have emerged at a critical moment for the country.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and the commander of Ukrainian forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, have been at odds. Mr Vitali Klitschko, the popular Mayor of Kyiv, has suggested that Mr Zelensky made mistakes in failing to prepare for the war.

And the opposition leader, Mr Petro Poroshenko, was on Dec 1 blocked by the authorities from leaving for a trip abroad that he said was aimed at lobbying for more military support.

The political frictions in Ukraine come as the country enters its second winter of full-scale war with Russia and the public braces itself for more attacks on cities and infrastructure, while its troops face grinding fighting on three fronts.

A summer counteroffensive failed to produce a hoped-for breakthrough against Russian defences on the south-eastern front, and while Ukrainian troops have gained some success in the south and against Russian naval forces in the Black Sea, they are suffering sustained attacks in the east.

As the military campaign has run into difficulties, criticism has started to rise within Ukraine’s political leadership.

Gen Zaluzhny, the commander of Ukrainian forces, wrote in a paper recently that the war was in a stalemate and would stay that way unless Ukraine received increased and more technologically sophisticated military equipment.

Mr Zelensky swiftly chastised the general and denied that the war was in a stalemate.

Since then, rumours have abounded that Gen Zaluzhny would be replaced. An MP in Mr Zelensky’s party, Ms Mariana Bezuhla, who is a deputy chairwoman of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence in Parliament, has criticised Gen Zaluzhny repeatedly on Facebook for failures in planning, even running a poll asking people to vote on his replacement.

The attacks on Gen Zaluzhny, who is enormously popular within the armed forces, have led others to criticise the government and Mr Zelensky’s administration, with complaints that the President interferes with military decisions and fires commanders without consulting with his military chief.

Mr Klitschko, a former boxing champion, expressed support for Gen Zaluzhny in an interview at the weekend, saying the general was right to tell the truth about the situation.

And Mr Klitschko took a sideswipe at Mr Zelensky, saying the President’s slide in opinion polls stemmed from mistakes he had made in failing to prepare for the war.

Both Mr Klitschko and Mr Poroshenko are political rivals of Mr Zelensky but had largely buried their differences since the Russian invasion in February 2022. But rivalries have emerged from time to time, such as when Mr Zelensky criticised the mayor for not sufficiently preparing air raid bunkers in the city.

Personal rivalry was most likely behind Mr Poroshenko’s travel ban, one analyst said, but in the end, Mr Poroshenko and Mr Zelensky agreed on the need to fight Russia and build alliances with the West.

“Their cooperation is inevitable,” said the analyst, Mr Petro Burkovskiy, executive director of a non-profit, non-partisan think-tank called the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

“It was a surprise and shock for me when they tried to stop me,” Mr Poroshenko said in an interview on Dec 4, days after he was prevented from leaving Ukraine on a scheduled trip to Poland, and then to the United States for what he said were meetings at the US Congress and the Pentagon.

But he urged in a video call that politicians stick together and cease personal attacks that created divisions at a critical time for Ukraine. “The first loser is Ukraine,” he said, “because we give additional fuel to the sceptics of Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, said on Dec 2 it had blocked the departure of Mr Poroshenko, a former president, to prevent his trip from being used for propaganda purposes by Russia.

The SBU said Mr Poroshenko had planned to meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who, the secret service said, has close ties with Russia.

Mr Poroshenko denied that he had planned to meet Mr Orban. He said that he had written him a letter in November but had not arranged a meeting. Mr Orban is the main obstacle to a package of European aid being considered for Ukraine.

Mr Poroshenko said his planned meetings in Poland and the US were important for the country before critical decisions on support for Ukraine coming up in America and Europe.

“This is one of the most important 10 days in Ukrainian history,” he said.

Despite the turmoil, Dr Oleksiy Haran, professor of comparative politics at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, said the politicking was a sign of a functioning democracy.

“Ukraine remains a democracy even under martial law,” he said. “There are opposition channels. There is a lot of debate; it is very important to keep that in mind.”

He said the blocking of Mr Poroshenko’s travel was a “mistake by the authorities”.

Mr Yehor Cherniev, an MP from Mr Zelensky’s party, said Mr Poroshenko would have another opportunity to travel.

And although Mr Cherniev, a deputy chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defence and Intelligence, agreed that an end of Western assistance would spell disaster for Ukraine, he was dismissive that Mr Poroshenko could influence the state of affairs.

“He does know a lot of people, but there is no evidence that they listen to him,” he said. NYTIMES