Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s Army Chief, was called for a meeting at the president’s office on Monday and was told that he was getting fired, following weeks of growing speculation over tensions between Ukraine’s President and his top commander.
The Ukrainian government has informed the White House that it has plans to fire commander Zaluzhny.
Reasons of rift?
According to the sources, President Zelensky and commander Zaluzhny has clashed over military strategies and other tactics, following a counteroffensive last year that was a big failure.
The pair have disagreed on a new mobilization tactic, as president opposed Zaluzhny’s proposal to call 500,000 fresh troops.
How did the White house respond?
The White House have not expressed his views on this plan to replace Zaluzhny, a source said.
“I would emphasize that the White House response was that we did not support or object to their sovereign decision,” an anonymous source said.
“The White House expressed that it is up to Ukraine to make its own sovereign decisions about its personnel,”
There is no fix timeline or official notice to determine the future, for now status quo will remain until further directions.
What happened in Monday’s meeting?
The commander refused to step down from his post, as the president sought to make changes in his military leadership after the failed counter offence.
Along with this, Zaluzhny criticised the government for slow, insufficient conscription and said Ukraine’s allies are facing shortage of resources.
“We remain hamstrung by the imperfections of the regulatory framework in our country, as well as the partial monopolization of the defense industry”, the commander said.
This leads to bottlenecks in the production systems of ammunition and deepen the dependency of Ukraine on its allies for supplies and equipment.
“Ukraine also faces a reduction in military support from its allies”, he said.
He also acknowledged the advantage enjoyed by the enemies to move human resources so efficiently and quickly, while comparing it with the inability of the Ukrainian state to do so.
While kyiv is largely outgunned by Russia and running low on military aid from its allies, the general is widely revered among the troops and civilians in Ukraine.
Tensions come amidst Financial crisis
This rift between the top commander and the President comes amidst the already staggering war that Ukraine is fighting due to lack of financial help.
Around $60 billion in emergency funding is stalled in US congress for Ukraine, Biden administration has pressured Zelensky to revive its plans to force back Russian invasion.
The US officials are concerned that the split between president Zelensky and his top commanders is slowing the decision-making process. However, the crisis seems to be resolved soon with EU recently clearing fund.
Zelensky approached EU
On Thursday, the Ukrainian president urged the European Union to set the annual aid amount of $19.6 billion to help Ukraine to stabilize.
After Hungarian prime Minister Viktor Orban lifted his veto, the EU agreed on a 4-year $54 billion aid package for war ridden Ukraine.
Although, Zelensky didn’t break his silence on the issue regarding commander Zaluzhny, he surely appreciated EU for following up with their commitments and signals, that now they are waiting for the US.
On the other side, the commander told that one of then most important goal for 2024 for the Ukraine’s army is to master new combat techniques as soon as possible.
He also called for the development of unmanned armed systems and other types of advanced weapons, to provide the best way for the Ukraine to lead the best counter offence against Russia.
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