Ukraine’s ex-military chief Zaluzhnyi reveals new details of rift with Zelensky
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) and General Valerii Zaluzhnyi at a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb 8, 2024.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- Ukraine's ex-military chief, Gen Zaluzhnyi, revealed new details of a deep rift with President Zelensky, blaming him for a 2022 raid and battlefield failures.
- Zaluzhnyi criticised Zelensky for overriding his 2023 counteroffensive plan and refusing necessary resources, leading to its embarrassing failure.
- The revelations deepen political rivalry amid future election speculation, with Zaluzhnyi polling as Zelensky's main challenger; Zelensky urged national unity.
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KYIV - Ukraine’s popular ex-military chief has provided new details of a rift with President Volodymyr Zelensky, threatening to deepen a long-simmering conflict between the two wartime leaders amid new speculation around post-war elections.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who served as Kyiv’s top commander until February 2024 and is now its ambassador to London, told the Associated Press in an interview published on Feb 18 that he felt threatened by a 2022 raid by security agents and blamed Mr Zelensky for a major battlefield failure.
The remarks provide fresh context to a potential rivalry that has long gripped Kyiv’s political class.
Opinion polls have consistently shown Gen Zaluzhnyi to be Mr Zelensky’s main challenger in any future election, although he has never voiced any ambition to run for office.
Mr Zelensky, facing US pressure to quickly secure a peace deal in Russia’s four-year war, has signalled his readiness to hold elections when fighting ends.
His office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Gen Zaluzhnyi’s remarks on the 2022 raid.
In his nightly address on Feb 18, Mr Zelensky did not directly comment on the AP interview but spoke of the importance of national unity and working together to ensure Ukraine’s survival.
“Any other politics in Ukraine is absolutely unnecessary at present… Personal matters (are for) later,” he said.
Security raid, military mismanagement
Speaking in London, Gen Zaluzhnyi described how his office was raided in September 2022 by dozens of agents from Ukraine’s SBU security service, which answers to Mr Zelensky.
Gen Zaluzhnyi said he then called Mr Zelensky’s chief of staff with a warning that he would deploy troops to protect his command centre, having already called in reinforcements to Kyiv.
The SBU’s press service told Reuters an address used by Gen Zaluzhnyi as a covert post had been listed in an unrelated organised crime case, and that no searches were carried out.
Gen Zaluzhnyi also pinned the failure of a much-vaunted 2023 counteroffensive on Mr Zelensky, saying he did not commit the necessary resources to the campaign.
Aimed at breaking Russian defences, it ended mostly in an embarrassing string of defeats for Kyiv.
Gen Zaluzhnyi said his original plan to focus on a single axis had been overridden by Mr Zelensky’s order to push across much of the front line. REUTERS
