Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet his top army commander, Valeriy Zaluzhny, for the first time since the president tried and failed on Monday to force out the popular army general.
Ukraine’s president gathered key security officials and top military commanders on Friday evening for a regular meeting, known as a “stavka,” lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Telegram.The president typically discusses the war and military plans with his close circle of advisers every few weeks. “Most likely, it will be THE ONE,” Honcharenko wrote about the meeting, without elaborating or specifying where he got the information.
Zelensky offered his general a new role on Monday, which Zaluzhnyi refused, escalating a power struggle in Kyiv at a critical time in Ukraine’s battle against Russia. “There is no (Zaluzhny) resignation document to date. And while there is no document, I would not advise anyone to make waves, because it destabilises the situation and it is not for good,” Ukrainian security and defence council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said.
Zaluzhnyi on Thursday doubled down on a confrontation with the president over military leadership, publishing in an opinion piece for CNN that criticised bureaucracy for holding back Ukraine’s defence industry and calling for “a new philosophy of training and warfare” in 2024 to cope with limited resources. Honcharenko, a member of former President Petro Poroshenko’s party, is among the most avid political bloggers in Ukraine, with more than 200,000 subscribers on his Telegram channel.
Ukraine’s president gathered key security officials and top military commanders on Friday evening for a regular meeting, known as a “stavka,” lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Telegram.The president typically discusses the war and military plans with his close circle of advisers every few weeks. “Most likely, it will be THE ONE,” Honcharenko wrote about the meeting, without elaborating or specifying where he got the information.
Zelensky offered his general a new role on Monday, which Zaluzhnyi refused, escalating a power struggle in Kyiv at a critical time in Ukraine’s battle against Russia. “There is no (Zaluzhny) resignation document to date. And while there is no document, I would not advise anyone to make waves, because it destabilises the situation and it is not for good,” Ukrainian security and defence council secretary Oleksiy Danilov said.
Zaluzhnyi on Thursday doubled down on a confrontation with the president over military leadership, publishing in an opinion piece for CNN that criticised bureaucracy for holding back Ukraine’s defence industry and calling for “a new philosophy of training and warfare” in 2024 to cope with limited resources. Honcharenko, a member of former President Petro Poroshenko’s party, is among the most avid political bloggers in Ukraine, with more than 200,000 subscribers on his Telegram channel.