Rumours that commander-in-chief of Ukraine would be fired expose divisions among Ukraine’s elite

Ukraine’s top leaders are in disagreement over whether to dismiss the country’s top military leader due to conflicts with the President.

Zelenskyy’s office and the Defense Ministry said Valerii Zaluzhnyi isn’t getting fired. He is still in his job as a top commander and is very popular. But the reports have made people think he might quit soon, which could be good for Russia as the war gets close to two years.

His leaving would be the biggest change in Ukraine’s top military leaders since Russia invaded. The country is struggling with not having enough ammunition and soldiers after a failed attack in the summer. This could also make Ukrainian soldiers feel unhappy and demoralized, they have been fighting tough battles for almost two years.

The USis stopping the important help the military needs to keep fighting. Congress and Ukrainian soldiers are getting ready to protect their positions from Russian troops moving forward.

“Zelensky can fire Zaluzhnyi. ” “Oleksii Haran, who works at a research organization in Kyiv, says that he must have a really good reason for it and explain it well to the people in Ukraine. ”

“We understand that if Zaluzhnyi is fired now, Russian propaganda and other groups, even in the US, will use it to hinder the delivery of weapons to Ukraine. ” Haran said this is not good.

Zaluzhnyi is liked by many people and the military, but he doesn’t get along with Zelenskyy because of a comment he made about fighting with Russia. The president said it wasn’t true.

Ukrainian media said there might be a chance that Zaluzhnyi could lose his job. Ukraine’s newspaper Mirror of the Week reported that the president asked a general to leave his job, according to sources close to Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyi. Zaluzhnyi was asked to be an adviser, but he said no, according to the reports.

The Associated Press was not able to check if the reports are true. Ukrainian officials, the president’s office, and Zaluzhnyi’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Russian government media were happy on Wednesday about rumors from Western sources. They talked about the rumors many times during the main discussion show “60 Minutes” on Russia 1 TV and also during news updates on Russia 24.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin is definitely keeping track of the news about Zaluzhnyi.

“Many questions remain,” Peskov said, according to Tass, and he added, “It’s clear that the government in Kyiv has a lot of problems and things are not going well there. ” This is easy to understand.

“It’s clear that the failed attack and the problems at the front have caused more fighting. ” “In both the high-ranking military and civilian people in Kyiv,” Peskov said. He said that more fighting will happen as Russia’s military operation keeps going well.