Valery Zaluzhny received a “reprimand” for the fact that last year the Ukrainian military was unable to achieve great success in the fight against Russian troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired General Valeriy Zaluzhny as commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, ending months of growing tension between the leaders.

Politico writes that although the general is one of the leaders in Ukraine thanks to his key role in repelling the first full-scale Russian attack almost two years ago and is seen as a potential political rival of Zelensky, the Ukrainian army has treated him less patiently.

He also had strained relations with Washington after he and U.S. military leaders disagreed over how to conduct the 2023 summer counteroffensive.

It is noted that several months before the dismissal, sharp disagreements over the course of the war between the president and Zaluzhny came to light, reflecting heightened tensions in Kiev due to huge losses in manpower, the failure of the summer counter-offensive and a reduction in the supply of weapons and ammunition.

A senior Ukrainian military official said there is growing dissatisfaction among senior military officials that Zaluzhny spends “a lot of time on Facebook showing off how he does things” while little is changing tactically or strategically on the front lines.

Wartime successes

It is impossible to ignore the critical role of Zaluzhny in the first days of a full-scale war. He rushed under-equipped units onto the battlefield to repel a massive Russian offensive on Kyiv, and delayed Moscow’s troops long enough for Western aid to arrive. Then, in late 2022, he led Ukrainian forces in a stunning counteroffensive that recaptured large swathes of territory.

He also developed strong relationships with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other senior Western generals, which was critical to securing military support in 2022 and 2023.

“The army fought brilliantly under Zaluzhny, but he was poorly supported by the government and parliament,” says Glen Grant, a former British officer and military expert at the Riga-based Baltic Security Foundation, pointing to tensions over a stalled mobilization law that Zaluzhny wants passed to increase number of troops, but which is politically dangerous.

According to Austrian military analyst Tom Cooper, Zaluzhny also came under fire for failing to complete the transformation of the Ukrainian armed forces into Western-style troops, improve logistics and rotate troops away from the front line to give them a chance to rest and recover, and do not leave them in the trenches for the entire war.

Grant pointed to some problems in management, although it is impossible to say who is to blame.

“Some of the weakest generals have remained in place and the best have remained idle. It is unclear whose fault it is,” he said, but then added: “Zaluzhny is the best motivator. What he lacks in skills and management knowledge, He makes up for it in character.”

But this was not enough for the general to remain in favor with the president. Relations between Zelensky and Zaluzhny have been tense for months due to a disappointing counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.

Some American and Western advisers recommended larger, more targeted attacks on specific positions that would send masses of Ukrainian forces against weak spots in Russian fortifications.

Once the fighting began, fresh Ukrainian troops, trained by Western militaries but lacking combat experience, struggled to cope with the brutal attacks, running into Russian defenses. After several months of fighting, Ukraine managed to recapture only a few kilometers of territory, at the cost of huge losses in manpower and equipment.

Domestic policy

This situation left Zaluzhny open to attack. There were also differences between Zaluzhny and the Pentagon over how the counteroffensive should be conducted.

The Pentagon has insisted that the Ukrainian military launch a major offensive, focusing on one area where experts believe a breakthrough is possible. Instead, Kyiv opted for multiple offensives along its entire front, believing that this would make it difficult for the Russians to fortify multiple areas at once.

“While the blame for these differences fell squarely on Zaluzhny’s shoulders, he was also “constrained by Zelensky,” who had the final say in military matters, “and so the US continued to shout at the wrong person,” the Western adviser noted.

A Ukrainian officer pointed out that “a war of attrition is a very, very bad choice for Ukraine.” According to him, Ukraine should take an “asymmetrical” approach, aimed at defense and industrial facilities inside Russia, “to break them, instead of this meat grinder” – which in the long term is beneficial to Russia, with its multi-million population and large reserves of equipment and weapons.

In November, Zaluzhny told the Economist that the war had reached a stalemate, prompting sharp rebuff from Zelensky and his advisers. Zaluzhny’s article forced Zelensky to convince his partners of the opposite.

“Irritation was also caused by the fact that Zaluzhny’s entourage openly and publicly discusses Zaluzhny’s presidential prospects,” said Vladimir Fesenko, chief analyst at the Kyiv-based Penta Center for Political Research. “This is not a struggle for power. But if he does not fire Zaluzhny, then after a while dual power will begin. And this is already unacceptable and will be a challenge for Zelensky. For him there are challenges, political risks, but given the stakes, these two options cannot coexist “.

A few days after Zaluzhny’s possible resignation became public, the general published an article on CNN in which he said his troops must learn new forms of training and new weapons to take full advantage of their advantage in creating new deadly drones.

Foreign problems

The political infighting in Kyiv is not helping to break the political deadlock in Washington, where Republicans in Congress are blocking a financial package with critical aid for Ukraine as the Ukrainian Armed Forces run out of ammunition, making it difficult to contain the Russian occupiers.

This event is also celebrated in Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that reports of Zaluzhny’s dismissal indicate that “things are not going very well” in Kyiv.

Nikolai Beleskov, a senior military analyst at the Come Back Alive charity foundation, which helps the Ukrainian army with supplies, believes that “no matter how events develop in connection with changes in leadership, the key task for Ukraine remains unchanged – the development and implementation of a high-quality military strategy in 2024.”

Given Russia’s current manpower and materiel advantage and lack of U.S. support, the U.S. adviser said there is a real risk this year that Russia will continue its offensive efforts, wearing down Ukrainian forces until Kiev ” will be forced to negotiate from an increasingly disadvantageous position.”

Zaluzhny’s resignation – main news

President Vladimir Zelensky explained the reasons for the dismissal of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny. According to him, the Ukrainian army needs changes because Ukraine could not achieve success “on the ground” in the war against Russia in 2023.

He noted that now there is a “sense of stagnation” in the southern directions of the front and difficulties in battles in the Donetsk region.