The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, will dismiss the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny by the end of this week. About this on Thursday, February 1, the CNN citing own sources. As it is added, there is currently no official announcement, but the presidential decree on this is expected by the end of the week.
According to the publication, on Monday, January 29, Zaluzhny was summoned to a meeting in the president's office and informed that he was being fired.
One of the sources clarifies that the official announcement of the dismissal of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces was not made, that is, Zaluzhny still held the position as of Wednesday evening, but the presidential decree "is expected by the end of the week."
"This will be Zelenskyi's biggest military shakeup since the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia almost two years ago." - says the message.
The journalists add that rumors about the meeting and the release of Zaluzhny spread in Kyiv on Monday night, allegedly due to differences between the president and the commander-in-chief after the failure of the 2023 Ukrainian counteroffensive.
"Tensions are said to have risen particularly when Zaluzhny described the war with Russia as a stalemate in an interview and essay for The Economist in November." — noted in the publication.
On Monday, the presidential spokesman, Serhiy Nikiforov, emphasized that the rumors about the dismissal of the army chief are untrue. The Ministry of Defense also said that this was not true. At the same time, Zelensky himself did not mention his army chief in his daily evening address on Monday.
According to one of the sources, at a small meeting in the OP on Monday, which was also attended by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, the president said that "decided to dismiss the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces." During a calm conversation, Zelensky offered Zaluzhny another position, but the general refused. Then the head of state emphasized that the rejection of the offer for a new job will not change the fact of removal from the current position.
CNN reached out to the Office of the President for further comment, but did not receive a response.
CNN announced the names of Zaluzhny's "successors".
Sources of the publication added that two names of possible "successors" of the commander-in-chief are already being "discussed" in the office of the head of state. According to CNN's interlocutors, Kyrylo Budanov is the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, as well as Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of the Ground Forces of Ukraine. None of them confirmed it.
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