The fallout over Valerii Zaluzhny’s remarks challenging the accepted narrative in Kiev about the state of the NATO-sponsored proxy war with Russia continues to swirl, with the Volodymyr Zelensky administration accusing him of aiding Moscow.
Valerii Zaluzhny’s “stalemate” comment and remarks on “what is happening at the front” are utterly inappropriate, and “make the aggressor’s job easier,” Zelensky aide Ihor Zhovkva told media this week, adding that he has already received “panic” filled phone calls from Kiev’s Western partners asking what is going on.
The Ukrainian president addressed the situation personally on Saturday, challenging Zaluzhny’s somber assessment of the situation at the front.
“Time has passed, people are tired, regardless of their status, and this is understandable. But this is not a stalemate, I emphasize this once again,” Zelensky said in a joint press conference with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Zelensky assured that the F-16 fighters the West has promised to provide Kiev can turn the situation around.
“How can we overcome this [the current situation, ed.]? There is a decision on F-16s. We must wait for our guys to train on them, when they get back. It’s a long process, there are quick solutions, and they are not some kind of space or technological ones,” he said, referring to Zaluzhny’s claims that Ukraine’s military would require things like robotic plasma boring machines and other fantastical weapons to rout Russia by boring beneath its deadly minefields.
“We have no right to give up. What’s the alternative?” Zelensky asked. “What, should we give up a third of our state? This will only be the beginning. We know the meaning of the term frozen conflict, and have drawn conclusions for ourselves.”
Zelensky went on to call on Kiev to cooperate more closely with its Western patrons “in the field of air defense, unblocking the sky,” and giving “our fighters the opportunity to carry out offensive actions.”
Zelensky’s remarks were accompanied by administrative action potentially aimed at Zaluzhny. On Friday, the president issued a decree firing Special Operations Forces commander Viktor Khorenko, with Ukrainian media saying the decree was penned on the advice of recently picked Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, but not approved by Zaluzhny. “We are waiting new results,” Zelensky said of Khorenko’s replacement.
Zaluzhny has been lionized by Western media throughout the course of the proxy war with Russia. Speaking to Sputnik on Friday about the commander’s comments to media, international relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda said he wouldn’t rule out that Zelensky’s Western patrons may be looking to replace him with the top commander at elections next year. “I believe that he probably does have ambitions, particularly if he was pushed by the US. So we could see a leadership context in Ukraine, or in the Kiev-regime-controlled parts of Ukraine,” Sleboda said.