Although the general is one of the most trusted people in Ukraine, thanks to his key role in blunting the initial Russian attack almost two years ago and is seen as a potential political rival to Zelenskyy, there’s a lot less patience with him in parts of the Ukrainian military. He has also had his tensions with Washington, after he and U.S. military leaders differed over how to conduct last year’s counteroffensive.
“I think it is long overdue,” one person close to Zelenskyy’s office said about what appears to be the forthcoming change in leadership.
A senior Ukrainian military officer, who like others in this story was granted anonymity to speak frankly, said that there has been frustration building among the upper ranks of the military that Zaluzhny spends “a lot of time on Facebook showing off how he is doing something,” while little changes tactically or strategically along the front lines.
“The army has fought amazingly under Zaluzhny but he has been poorly supported by the government and parliament,” said Glen Grant, a former British officer and a military expert with the Riga-based Baltic Security Foundation, pointing to tensions over a stalled mobilization law that Zaluzhny wants to boost troop numbers but which is politically dangerous.
Zaluzhny has also come under fire for not completing the Ukrainian military's transformation into a Western-style force, not improving logistics and failing to rotate troops away from the frontline to allow them to rest and recuperate rather than leaving them in trenches for the whole war, said Austrian military analyst Tom Cooper.
"After two years since the all-out invasion, none of these is working really well, and improvements observed so far remain relatively minimal," he said.
Grant did point to some management issues, although it’s not certain who bears the blame.
"Some of the weakest generals have been kept and better ones left idle. It is not clear whose fault this is," he said, but then added: "Zaluzhny is the best motivator. What he misses in skills and management knowledge he makes up for in character."
Relations between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny have been tense for months over the disappointing 2023 counteroffensive. It was launched in the summer — months after some at the Pentagon and elsewhere thought it should have begun.
Some U.S. and Western advisers recommended larger, more tightly targeted assaults on specific positions which would thrust Ukrainian mass against weaker sections of the well-entrenched Russian lines.
There was also tension between Zaluzhny and the Pentagon over how the counteroffensive was to be waged.
The Pentagon pushed for the Ukrainian military to make a major thrust focused on one area where planners thought a breakthrough was possible. Instead, Kyiv chose several assaults across the front in the belief that would make it difficult for the Russians to reinforce many points at once.
After weeks of disagreements, “it became pretty clear over the course of the offensive that Ukrainians just weren't interested in U.S. advice, and they generally concluded that we have nothing to offer them advice-wise,” said one person who has advised the White House on military matters.
The argument, the adviser said, was that the United States didn’t have experience fighting the kind of war the Ukrainians were fighting, and while U.S. advice was welcomed, it could also be tone-deaf.
In the coming months, as Ukraine is now forced on the defensive, the current “war of attrition is a very, very bad choice for Ukraine,” the Ukrainian officer said.
Rather, Ukraine should adopt an “asymmetric” approach, the officer said, that focuses on defense and industrial targets inside Russia “to break them, instead of this meat grinder” — something that in the long run favors Russia and its larger population and deeper stocks of equipment and armor.
In November, Zaluzhny told the Economist that the war had settled into a stalemate, drawing a sharp rebuke from Zelenskyy and his advisers.
Zaluzhny’s essay forced Zelenskyy to scramble to reassure partners the war hadn’t hit a dead end.
Ukraine’s top general runs out of road both in Kyiv and in Washington – POLITICO
