Rumors of dismissal of the chief of staff of the army Valery Zaluzny

For weeks, tensions in Kiev between Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the Ukrainian military’s chief of staff, Valery Zaluz, have come to light since the start of Vladimir Putin’s generalized invasion of Ukraine. According to sources The Washington PostThe Ukrainian president may have finally, on Monday, notified his dismissal of the very popular general who has led operations on the battlefield since February 24, 2022: a disruptive military reshuffle in the context of Ukraine’s troubles on the battlefield. war

On Monday, Zelensky’s spokesman Serhii Naikiforov denied Zaluzny’s dismissal. “There is no orderNykyforov said. The President did not dismiss the Commander in Chief” However, according to sources quoted by The Washington Post And Economist, Zelensky may have informed him of his departure, that same Monday, during a meeting. The general will remain in place while waiting for a successor to be found and an official decree to be published. Last year, the effective departure of Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov came several months after the first announcement.

Disagreement on strategy

A much-anticipated counter-offensive by Kiev forces with weapons supplied by their Western allies did not result in the expected breakthrough through Russian lines and allowed only some territory to be recovered. Zaluzny and his American counterparts disagreed sharply on tactics. The Ukrainian commander ultimately ignored US directives to concentrate his forces in the south, which he believed would have suffered much greater losses without air support.

At Monday’s meeting, differences between the two men reportedly came to a head over a disagreement over how many troops Ukraine should mobilize this year. Zaluzny called for a mobilization of about 500,000 troops, which the Ukrainian president considered unrealistic, given the shortage of uniforms, weapons and ammunition, as well as potential difficulties associated with recruitment. For the chief of staff, it is a question of countering the ongoing Russian mobilization of 400,000 men and expanding the ranks of the Ukrainian army, which has been thinned by two years of hard fighting. In addition, Volodymyr Zelensky considers the general a true national hero, whose portrait adorns all the country’s schools as a rival, while his popularity prepares the ground for a possible entry into politics since his team handed over the elections.

Also readAt the “Zero Line”, Ukrainian soldiers at the end of their strength against the Russians: the story of Le Figaro’s special correspondent

Zaluzny’s successor is yet to be identified. Two names are being circulated insistently. Head of Ukrainian Military Intelligence, General Kyrillo Baudanov, aged 38. His appointment will signal a shift toward asymmetric tactics in a war where the front line has not changed in more than a year. However, he never assumed effective command of the army. Another strong candidate is General Oleksandr Sirsky, the commander of the ground forces, praised for leading the defense of Kiev in the first months of the war before organizing a successful counter-offensive into the Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022.