President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the resignation of 50-year-old Valery Zaluzhny, who headed the country's armed forces for more than two years. This was announced by the president himself in his address to the citizens.
Having met with Zaluzhny half an hour earlier, Zelensky thanked him for his work.
Oleksandr Syrskyi was appointed as the new manager. The strained relationship between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhny intensified in November 2023, but then the resignation did not take place. On January 29, 2024, Zelensky summoned Zaluzhny and informed him of his intention to fire him, but the decree was not signed until February 8.
Before his release, Zaluzhny published his program column on CNN, in which he outlined his vision for the war and his plan for changes in the army for the next six months.
The long-running conflict between Ukraine's military and political leadership has escalated in recent months, especially during discussions about the possible resignation of Valery Zaluzhny, who has a higher level of public support than the president himself. This situation caused considerable anxiety in society. Ukrainian and Western analysts actively discussed the threat of a major crisis of confidence between the country's military and political leadership.
Zaluzhny, who has more than 20 years of military service, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in July 2021 by order of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. In an interview with Time magazine, he described his impressions of this appointment as "a blow below the belt", which had a knock-out effect on him.
Zaluzhny led the Ukrainian army during the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. Although the government of Ukraine received criticism for insufficient preparation for war, experts admit that the state was able to resist Russian aggression thanks to the actions of Zaluzhny. He organized the secret redeployment of Ukrainian military resources, including aviation and air defense equipment, and developed a plan to repel aggression.
The New Yorker magazine claims that Valery Zaluzhny hid military preparations even from President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Kyiv's American partners.
According to this information, Zaluzhny did not inform Zelensky about the preparations for fear that the president, not believing in the possibility of an invasion, might demand to curtail the preparations. As for the Americans, he also withheld information because he was afraid that they would tell Zelensky and others about these actions.
During almost two years of full-scale war with Russia, Zaluzhny became a popular figure both in Ukrainian society and in the West.
He was highly appreciated by his Western colleagues, and photo collages and memes with his participation were actively shared on the Internet, recognizing his contribution to the first visible victories of Ukraine, such as the defeat of the Russians near Kiev, the sinking of the Russian cruiser "Moskva", as well as the liberation of Kherson and the Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022.
Against this background, discussions began about Zaluzhnyi's prospects as a politician and likely competitor of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
During the last year, Ukraine's successes at the front practically disappeared - the expected counteroffensive, during which the Ukrainian authorities promised to liberate, if not Crimea, then the entire Kherson region and Zaporizhzhia region, did not yield results.
November 2023 was marked by the publication of Valery Zaluzhny's article and interview in the British magazine The Economist, which caused a wave and the subsequent course of events that led to his dismissal. In this address, Zaluzhnyi admitted for the first time that the Ukrainian offensive had ended without the expected success, and that the calculation to exhaust the Russians was wrong from the very beginning.
He expressed his vision for the necessary technological changes in the country, taking into account the mistakes of the past years, and also identified the need for support from Western partners.
Zaluzhny emphasized the dependence of the fate of the war on the position and supplies of the West, but at the same time noted that much of this depends on the political leadership of Ukraine.
After that, there were rumors about the possible resignation of Zaluzhnyi and his conflict with President Zelensky, who had a different view on the course of the war.
Information about this conflict was denied by the president's team, but the situation was deepening. This tension was significantly increased due to the stable support of Zaluzhnyi and the drop in the rating of the president, which was recorded in social polls.
The last clear confrontation between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhny was the dispute over the draft law on mobilization. The president did not want to take responsibility for this, trying to shift it to the military leadership.
The bill has not yet been passed and has been brought back to parliament, but it is not known when it will be passed.
Also, the situation with the possible downing of the Russian Il-76 plane near Belgorod could have influenced the president's decision. According to the Russians, there may have been Ukrainian prisoners on board. The General Staff admitted that the downing of the plane could have been caused by the actions of the Armed Forces, but Russia did not provide evidence of the presence of prisoners.
In the context of rumors of a possible resignation, on February 1, the American edition of CNN published a column by the commander-in-chief, in which he expressed his vision of war and changes in the military, as well as criticized shortcomings in the mobilization system and the work of the defense industry.
Previously, political scientists emphasized that the decision to release Valery Zaluzhny would be a serious political mistake on the part of President Zelensky, and it could cause the creation of a strong political competitor for him.
"Trying to release Zaluzhny will be the president's most fatal mistake. This is the worst he can do. This will automatically make Zaluzhnyi his main competitor," stressed political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko in the fall of 2023.
According to the survey of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted in late November-early December 2023, the trust of Ukrainians in the Armed Forces of Ukraine remained unchanged at a high level (96%) during another year of war.
Although the majority of Ukrainians continue to trust President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, their number has significantly decreased. If in December 2022 they trusted 84%, then at the end of 2023 this figure decreased to 62%.
A separate study by KMIS in 2023 focused on trust in Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny. In the second year of the war, 88% of Ukrainians believed him. However, the attitude towards President Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi was on the same level – trust in each of them was 59%.
How will Ukrainian society accept the resignation of the popular commander-in-chief, who was often called "Zaluzhny's father"? According to a KMIS survey conducted in December, 72% of Ukrainians do not support replacing Zaluzhny with another general (only 2% support this idea).
