As of: February 1, 2024, 11:23 a.m
Comments
Press
Split
General Valeriy Zalushny, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, on June 28.
© Oksana Parafeniuk/The Washington Post
A power struggle is raging in Ukraine between the Ukrainian President and Commander-in-Chief Zalushnyj.
The exit is open.
Kiev – Volodymyr Zelensky tried to fire Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Saluzhny.
The Ukrainian president told the general at a meeting that he was firing him.
A senior official familiar with the conversation said this.
This is a drastic military change in the middle of the Ukraine war.
It was the culmination of months of friction between the president and the popular general.
Saluschnyj remains in his post for the time being.
But his removal is expected to be confirmed by a formal presidential decree almost two years after the Russian invasion and given that Moscow's forces appear to be seizing the strategic initiative in some parts of the front.
On Monday, Zelensky's spokesman Serhiy Nykyforov denied that Saluzhny had been fired.
“There is nothing to talk about,” Nykyforov told reporters.
“There is no order.
The president did not fire the commander in chief.”
Nykyforov did not immediately respond to requests
for comment from The
Washington Post on Wednesday.
Read The Washington Post for free for four weeks
Your quality ticket from washingtonpost.com: Get exclusive research and 200+ stories free for four weeks.
It is far from clear that a new commander can improve Ukraine's difficult situation on the battlefield unless he provides significantly more troops and weapons - exactly what Zalushny has demanded of Zelensky, adding to the already strained relationship further burdened.
Power struggle between Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief Zalushny
Zalushny's popularity - both within the military and among the people of Ukraine - makes his removal a political risk for Zelensky.
It also poses strategic risks at a time when Russia has stepped up its attacks and Western security assistance to Kiev has waned.
The general developed a good relationship with his Western partners and was often able to directly advocate for specific material and obtain advice on battlefield strategy.
My news
On roads and rail: Bundeswehr announces huge military convoys through Germany
'Unique Lego puzzle' makes Putin loser in Black Sea reading
Russia reacts to major NATO maneuvers – and threatens “tragic consequences” read
“Lost interest in the topic”: Aiwanger is criticized after outrage over left-wing extremism
Attack on Russian tank: Ukraine drones send Putin's soldiers fleeing
“Inadequate training”: Russia probably accidentally bombs its own cities
It was unclear whether Zelensky and his team had planned the firing for this week before details of Monday's meeting were leaked to some media outlets and to channels on the social media app Telegram.
But tensions between the two men had been building for months.
Last year's much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, which used soldiers trained by NATO allies with Western weapons and equipment, recaptured little territory and fell far short of expectations.
Saluzhny and his American colleagues disagreed over tactics, and the Ukrainian commander ultimately ignored U.S. advice to concentrate his forces, which he said could have resulted in far greater casualties.
In their conversation on Monday, Zelensky told Saluzhny that Ukrainians had become war-weary and that the country's international backers had also slowed military aid, so a new commander might change the situation, the person familiar with the conversation said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
© Ukraine Presidency/Ukrainian Pre/Imago
Two people spoke about the meeting on condition of anonymity to speak openly about the highly sensitive situation with unpredictable implications for the war and Ukraine's security.
Senior aides to Saluzhny are also expected to be removed, one person said.
Differences between the two boiled over at Monday's meeting over a disagreement over how many troops Ukraine should mobilize this year, according to the two people familiar with the exchange.
Zalushnyj is calling for hundreds of thousands of fresh workers - Zelenskyi believes that is impossible
Zalushny proposed mobilizing nearly 500,000 soldiers, a number Zelensky viewed as impractical given the lack of uniforms, weapons and training facilities, as well as potential problems with recruitment, the people said.
Zelensky has also publicly stated that Ukraine lacks the resources to pay so many new conscripts.
Saluzhny replied that Ukraine was already short of forces due to mounting losses and needed 400,000 new soldiers, which Russia planned to mobilize, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
Andrii, a deputy battalion commander, condemned Saluzhny's expected removal with an expletive.
Andrii, like other soldiers, is only referred to by his first name because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
Saluzhny “has reasonable thoughts about mobilization,” Andrii said.
“People say: 'We don't need mobilization - everything is fine there', but that's not the case here.
They don’t know what’s happening here.”
Who could follow Saluschnyj?
It was not immediately clear who would replace the 50-year-old Saluzhny.
A leading candidate is the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, 38-year-old Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov.
His appointment would potentially signal a shift toward asymmetrical tactics — such as drone strikes deep into Russian territory that Budanov has often ordered — in a war where the front lines have changed little in more than a year.
But Budanov, who has experience in the special forces, has no experience as an army chief.
Another option is Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, the 58-year-old commander of Ukrainian ground forces who led the defense of Kiev in the first month of the war and organized a successful counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022.
But Syrsky is particularly unpopular among rank-and-file soldiers because he is seen by many as a Soviet commander who kept troops under fire in the eastern city of Bakhmut for too long when Ukraine should have retreated.
Both Budanov and Syrsky are considered favorites of Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office and Zelensky's closest advisor.
However, there seems to be little appetite for change on the front line.
"My personal opinion is that you can't do something like that now - Zalushny is someone who 80 percent of the military considers a good authority," said Oleksandr, a battalion commander fighting in eastern Ukraine.
“Why is he being removed?
That is not clear.
And who will replace him?
Syrsky?
God, I hope not.
Nobody in the army likes Syrsky,” Oleksandr added.
Saluzhny was offered another position but declined it and plans to retire from the military, the senior official said.
Saluzhny declined to comment when
reached by
The Post .
The dispute between Zelensky and Zalushny has been simmering for months
For now he will remain in office and his formal dismissal could be delayed.
Last year, Zelensky's parliamentary group leader announced that Oleksiy Reznikov, then defense minister, would be fired, but Reznikov remained in his post for months before being removed.
“This is a disastrous step,” Oleksandr said.
“If this becomes official, we will be finished.
The morale of both the military and society will plummet.”
The dispute between Zelensky and Zalushny has been simmering for months, and the general has been expecting his dismissal since the summer of 2022, the person said.
Zalushnyy has been Ukraine's commander-in-chief since Russia invaded in February 2022 and, according to opinion polls, is a rival to Zelensky, making him a potential political threat in the event of a presidential election.
Elections are currently banned in Ukraine due to martial law, but under normal conditions should have taken place this year.
“There is only one explanation for this: the Zelensky government is blaming its missteps... on the shoulders of Saluzhny,” said a soldier fighting in the besieged eastern city of Avdiivka.
“Zelensky is simply very dependent on ratings, and he knows full well that Zalushny’s ratings are much higher than his own at the moment.
And that was it.
I think politics should not interfere in the work of the military.”
Although Ukrainian officials privately hinted at the distrust between Salushny and Zelensky last year, the discord has emerged openly in recent months.
Last fall, in an interview with the
Economist
magazine, Saluzhny described the war as a “stalemate.”
Zelensky publicly rejected these statements.
Another reason for the tensions is the gap between what Saluzhnyy has demanded for the Ukrainian military and what Kyiv's political leadership has received from allies and partners, a second person familiar with Monday's meeting said.
"He says in conversations with the defense minister, 'It's not my job to get this, it's yours,'" the person said.
Russia is happy about the dispute between Zelensky and Saluzhny
Proposed aid to Ukraine has stalled in Washington and Brussels because of internal political disputes in the United States and the European Union.
Republicans in the House of Representatives have blocked a White House request for an additional $60 billion for the war in Ukraine.
The new Ukrainian military leadership is unlikely to change this, as the blocked security aid is tied to a bipartisan agreement on sweeping changes to US border policy.
"I don't know who will be next and what decisions have been made, but maybe they just want to hear good news from the commander in chief, like, 'Everything is going fine, everything is cool,' but that's not going to happen," said Andrii, the deputy battalion commander.
Compared to the invading enemy, Ukraine has so far enjoyed relative stability in its military ranks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed General Valery Gerasimov as supreme commander a year ago and fired General Sergei Surovikin, who had only been in office for three months.
“The Kiev regime has a lot of problems and everything went wrong there, that's for sure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday when asked about Saluzhny's possible dismissal.
“It is obvious that the failed counteroffensive and the problems at the front are increasing the disagreements between the members of the Kiev regime,” Peskov added.
To the authors
Isabelle Khurshudyan
is a foreign correspondent based in Kyiv.
She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and has worked at The Washington Post since 2014, where she previously covered the Washington Capitals as a Moscow bureau correspondent and as a sports reporter.
John Hudson
is a reporter at The Washington Post covering the State Department and national security.
He was part of the team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Public Relations for its coverage of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
He has reported from dozens of countries including Ukraine, China, Afghanistan, India and Belarus.
Hudson reported from Washington.
Anastacia Galouchka and David L. Stern in Kiev, Serhiy Morgunov in Warsaw, and Natalia Abbakumova in Riga, Latvia, contributed to this report.
We are currently testing machine translations. This article was automatically translated from English into German.
This article was first published in English on February 1, 2024 at the “Washingtonpost.com” - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.