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Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked his most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, to step down on Monday but the popular general refused, triggering speculation that he will be dismissed instead.
Tensions between the two have been simmering for weeks amid the failure of Ukraine’s summer counter-offensive but the suggestion that Zaluzhnyi could be forced out nevertheless came as a shock to many.
Oleksii Goncharenko, a Ukrainian opposition MP and ally of the general, told the Guardian that he understood that “yesterday the president asked Zaluzhnyi to resign but he declined to do so”.
He blamed personality clashes for the conflict. “Personally I think this is a bad idea. There are not fundamental issues between them but Zelenskiy’s office has been concerned that Zaluzhnyi has been making political not military statements,” Goncharenko said.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
Democrats on Tuesday accused Republicans of being on the brink of deliberately collapsing a deal linking aid to Ukraine to a tightening of immigration policy at the US’s southern border in order to help Donald Trump’s election campaign.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, urged European leaders to accelerate aid to Ukraine in a speech to Swedish military academy, saying the “costs … of a Russian victory are too high for all of us”.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in June has failed to break through Russian lines amid criticism the attack was spread across too many axes – but the real dispute between the president and his top general appear to be political.
The Ukrainian general is the most popular figure in the country other than the president and his high standing has irritated Zelenskiy’s office, particularly as the politician has been considering whether to hold fresh elections, currently suspended under martial law.
In a rare interview, Zaluzhnyi told the Economist at the beginning of November that he believed the war was at a stalemate and called for fresh help from the west, but a few days later Zelenskiy dismissed the downbeat assessment.
Although Zaluzhnyi has never publicly said he would enter politics, informal Facebook posts showing photos of him with his wife were interpreted in Bankova – Ukraine’s equivalent of Downing Street – as a signal of intent.
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