Zelensky and Zaluzhni, chronicle of a traumatic breakup for Ukraine

In the photograph they appear smiling and shaking hands. The corpulent figure of Valeri Zaluzhni imposes itself on the smaller stature of Volodymyr Zelensky, the general seems more relaxed, he even allows himself to make his now characteristic symbol of victory with two fingers. The soldier and the president staged unity last Thursday, the day the rupture between them was consummated. Zelensky dismissed him as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces after two years of disagreements. The final chapter of their relationship was aimed at maintaining the country's cohesion between the political and military leadership. But the truth is that major differences have existed between them since the beginning of the invasion, in February 2022.

EL PAÍS has reconstructed the chronology of the events that distanced the president and the general until the breakup. The president justified that the war has entered a new phase of difficulties in which it is necessary “not to lose hope in victory.” Zelensky saw Zaluzhni as a equal, both are men gifted in communication, public relations and human contact. That is why he chose him, upon assuming the presidency in 2019, to lead the army and its transformation into a modern armed forces according to NATO standards. But the president had political objectives and Zaluzhni had military objectives. And his interests clashed from the beginning.

The Ukrainian army and the intelligence services of the United States assumed the Russian invasion already at the end of 2021. Zelensky listened to the reports that warned him of this but until the day before the start of the war he publicly ruled out that Russia was going to attack . The objective was not to cause panic among citizens, and to ensure that the country did not experience an exodus of millions of people, men and women. The journalist Simon Shuster has just published The Showman, the best book to date about how Zelensky's team faced the first year and a half of the invasion, but also Zaluzhni. In the book, the now former commander in chief explains that the chief of the United States General Staff, Mark Milley, pressured him to build defense fortifications and trenches now: Zaluzhni's response was that he could not because Zelensky did not authorize it, to avoid social instability.

Zaluzhni himself has admitted that in the weeks before the start of the war, justifying to the presidency that he was carrying out military maneuvers, he hid from the president that he was actually positioning his units to defend kyiv against a probable siege. Time proved him right.

Zaluzhni's popularity among the population skyrocketed starting in 2022 and, as a deputy close to the general and a high-ranking army friend of his, who preferred to preserve their identity, explained to this newspaper, the president's office demanded that he reduce the their public interventions at a minimum. Zelensky feared a leap into the commander-in-chief's policy, a possibility that Zaluzhni's team admits to Shuster was studied. The sources consulted by this newspaper also agreed that the general argued heatedly in the early stages of the war with the president and his right-hand man, Andrii Yermak, to convince them that he could resist the Russian troops, and that he could even be able to make them retreat.

Counteroffensive in Kharkiv

The Showman reveals hitherto unknown information. The lightning counteroffensive that liberated Kharkiv province in September 2022 was a direct order from Zelensky to Oleksander Sirski, who was head of the Army and, as of this week, Zaluzhni's successor as commander-in-chief. Zaluzhni decided that before Kharkov it was essential to liberate the province of Kherson, in the south, to advance towards the Crimea. The president bypassed the head of the army and in the celebrations for the success achieved he was ignored.

That September, the Nordstream gas pipeline, the main source of natural gas from Russia to the European Union, was sabotaged. German and Danish justice are investigating the possible authorship, but the US intelligence services have assumed that it was the work of a Ukrainian military unit under the orders of Zaluzhni, according to reports. Washington Post. The Pentagon assures that Zelensky was not informed of this possible Ukrainian attack on key infrastructure in the European Union.

Zelensky returned to take the military reins in February and March 2023. Bakhmut, the city of Donetsk, on the eastern front, was already doomed to fall into Russian hands after more than six months of siege. Zaluzhni was in favor of stepping back a few weeks to reserve resources. Ukraine had focused a good part of its military power on defense while the Kremlin troops took the opportunity to fortify the front. Zelensky gave the order to resist until the last meter, and it was Sirski who assumed control. The American president, Joe Biden, visited kyiv precisely in February 2023. According to political sources close to Zaluzhni consulted by EL PAÍS, Washington proposed a meeting between Biden and Zaluzhni, but Zelensky's office rejected it, fearing his prominence.

Open confrontation

In November 2023, hostilities broke out between the two, with no possibility of return. In an interview in The Sun, the president warned Zaluzhni of his possible political ambitions. “There are political forces that are pushing the military to engage in politics,” said the president in a veiled reference to the messages of support for the general from the main opposition party, European Solidarity. “If you are leading the war while thinking that in the future you will be doing politics, then your words and your actions on the front are those of a politician and not a military man, and this is a serious mistake.” That November, Zelensky fired one of his most trusted men, Viktor Khorenko, commander of the army's special forces, without informing Zaluzhni. Both Khorenko and Zaluzhni expressed their displeasure at the decision.

What affected Zelensky the most that November is an essay and interview that the then commander in chief gave in the magazine The Economist. Zaluzhni confirmed that the front was stagnant and that he did not contemplate his troops being able to advance until at least 2025, given the loss of weapons support from the West. The president publicly discredited him, claiming that his view was incorrect. Igor Zhovka, deputy head of the president's office, accused Zaluzhny of encouraging Russia and dividing Ukraine's allies.

Zaluzhni's future already seemed doomed from that moment on. Zaluzhni did not back down and in December he criticized the president for not having done what was necessary to reinforce the army with greater military mobilization of civilians. A month later, on January 29, Zelensky offered the general to resign, but he refused. Politicians and journalists close to him leaked the news, which caused an earthquake in public opinion. On February 1, Zaluzhni insisted on more criticism of the president, this time through CNN. In addition to insisting that great advances were no longer possible, Zaluzhni accused the Government for not having known how to better manage the supply and production of weapons, and once again stressed that the mobilization process has been a failure because it has been avoided. with “unpopular measures.”

On February 8, Zaluzhni's official replacement arrived with a message from him and the president calling for unity. This Friday, both hugged during the presentation of the Hero of Ukraine medal to the general. It remains to be seen what Zaluzhni will do. He can accept Zelensky's offer of another position in the army but he can also follow the siren song of politics. Sooner or later there will be presidential and legislative elections, which have already been postponed due to the war, and above all there will be future negotiations with Russia to end the conflict.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.

_