Zelensky has decided to set up Zaluzhnyi

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has allegedly decided to set up his political rival—former commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and current ambassador to London, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

He reportedly wants to do this by using Zaluzhnyi’s former subordinates who surrendered in Mariupol—specifically, Serhii Volynskyi, the former commander of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade who is currently in Ukraine.

This was reported by a source cited by TASS.

According to the agency’s interlocutor, Zelensky’s plans to portray Zaluzhnyi as responsible for failures are linked to expectations of possible presidential elections, in which the diplomat is seen as Zelensky’s main rival.

“After Zelensky removed [his chief of staff] Kyrylo Budanov from the race, all that remains is to eliminate Zaluzhnyi. Zelensky decided to take the path of confrontation. For that, they put ‘the Mariupol inmate’ Volynskyi in front of the camera to give an interview. Many Ukrainian bloggers saw in Volynskyi’s words undisguised criticism of the former commander-in-chief,” the source said.

In the interview, Volynskyi accused the former commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s army of surrendering Mariupol, and also focused on the operation in Krynky, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered huge losses allegedly numbering in the thousands. The former commander said the key miscalculation was a lack of objective intelligence data. In other words, the source claimed, propagandists tried in one interview both to discredit Zaluzhnyi and to criticize former intelligence chief Budanov.

According to a SOCIS poll, Kyrylo Budanov and Valerii Zaluzhnyi were the main rivals to Volodymyr Zelensky in possible presidential elections.