Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his views on the public statements made by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhny, regarding the searches that took place in 2022 and the details of the counteroffensive operation of the Defense Forces in 2023. In a comment to the French agency France-Presse, Zelensky emphasized the inappropriateness of such discussions during wartime.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Zelensky’s Remarks on Zaluzhny’s Public Statements
“I simply believe that discussing the details mentioned by Valerii Fedorovych today is also very inappropriate. Because no one will benefit from this. After all, it concerns our army… It is fighting today. And he will not, let’s say, look good if he talks about this and continues,” Zelensky pointed out, adding that “right now we need to focus on other things.”
Valerii Zaluzhny, who currently represents Ukraine in the United Kingdom, previously shared in an interview with the Associated Press published on February 18 about his differences in approach with Volodymyr Zelensky regarding the organization of the country’s defense following the start of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation in February 2022.
Details of the Counteroffensive Plan and Searches in 2022–2023
According to Zaluzhny, the plan developed jointly with NATO partners for conducting a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 was not fully implemented because “Zelensky and other officials did not allocate the necessary resources.” The former Commander-in-Chief emphasized that the initial idea involved concentrating forces to break through at specific sections of the Zaporizhzhia region, with a subsequent advance to the Sea of Azov. In the general’s opinion, this would have allowed cutting off the logistical corridor through which the Russian army supplied troops from Crimea.
Zaluzhny also noted that instead of implementing this plan, the defense forces were dispersed across a wide front, which led to a decrease in the effectiveness of offensive actions.
Additionally, the general recounted an incident that occurred in September 2022. After a tense meeting at Zelensky’s office, he returned to his office in Kyiv, where a search took place a few hours later involving several dozen agents from the Security Service of Ukraine. According to Zaluzhny, law enforcement did not disclose the purpose of the search, and he himself prevented the seizure of official documents and computers. The general regarded these actions as a direct threat and, in the presence of SBU employees, called then-Head of the President’s Office Andrii Yermak and Head of the SBU Vasyl Maliuk. After these calls, the agents left the office.