If you were expecting an improved level of stability in Ukraine while they await their next pallets of American cash, you probably shouldn’t get your hopes up. Hot on the heels of discovering tens of millions of dollars of additional fraud inside the country’s defense industry, reports have emerged suggesting that Volodymyr Zelensky is considering firing his top military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi. But it’s not being said that Zaluzhnyi was involved in the phony arms sale scheme. In fact, he’s very popular with the troops and the general population. Zelensky’s comments suggest that he’s looking for more of a “change of direction” for the country and how they proceed as the war continues. In fact, he admits he’s already asked for his resignation once but the General refused. (Associated Press)
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was weighing a possible dismissal of the country’s top military officer, a prospect that has shocked the nation fighting Russia’s invasion and worried Kyiv’s Western allies.
Asked whether he was considering the ouster of Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Zelenskyy told Italian RAI TV in an interview released late Sunday that he was thinking about it as part of a broader issue of setting the country’s path. He said that “a reset, a new beginning is necessary,” and it’s “not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership.”
Zelensky is being quite vague in all of this. He insists that he’s not singling out Zaluzhnyi, but instead looking for a new team where “we must all push in the same direction.” That sounds to me like a subtle way of saying that members of his government disagree with his leadership and the direction the war and their international relations are taking so he wants people who share his goals. That’s perhaps understandable, but he’s been losing a lot of people in senior leadership positions over the past year or more.
There are also those inside the government who believe that Zelensky is blaming the general for the country’s lackluster military recruitment efforts (to put it kindly). They’ve had an estimated nearly half a million troops killed or seriously injured thus far. Their ranks are depleted and Zaluzhnyi hasn’t been able to make up the deficit. It’s hard to blame him, though. As brave and patriotic as the Ukrainian people may be, they can see the course this war is taking and it’s got to be hard to find a continual stream of people to step up and volunteer to throw themselves at the Russian lines. The counteroffensive last summer went nowhere and the Russians are dug in solidly. Does Zelinsky honestly believe he can find someone else capable of turning that trend around?
We are further reminded that conflicts between Zaluzhnyi and Zelensky first broke out a couple of months ago. During a magazine interview, the General admitted that the battle with Russia had reached “a stalemate.” Zelensky was reportedly furious that he would say such a thing and publicly disagreed. But ask yourself who would have a better grasp of what was happening on the battlefield. Would it be the general directing the operations on the front line or a politician and former comedian who spends most of his time flying around to various countries begging for more aid?
Ukraine is once again running short on troops, ammunition, and fuel. The battle lines are not moving. He wants Valerii Zaluzhnyi to deliver a plan to address these problems and “win” the war. The General has no such plan because a virtually impossible task has been set before him. At his level, he is no doubt also keeping tabs on the international press and ongoing trends. He’s aware that other countries, including the United States, have been growing dubious about continuing to pour an endless stream of money and arms down this particular rathole. Zelensky is one of the few continuing to insist that they can still “win.” Perhaps the wrong person is being considered for termination.