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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Photo: Ukraine Presidency / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj says he is considering replacing several leading Ukrainian representatives. In an interview with the Italian television station RAI, when asked about a possible replacement of military commander-in-chief Valery Salushny, he told the Italian television station RAI that it was about the leadership of Ukraine. A new beginning is necessary. A replacement of a number of leading representatives of the state, not just in the army, would therefore be considered.
»I'm talking about the fact that a number of heads of state need to be replaced, not just in the army sector. I'm thinking about this replacement. “This is a question for the entire leadership of the country,” said Zelensky in an interview.
According to SPIEGEL information, Selenskyj had already tried to persuade Saluschny to resign in a personal conversation last week. But Saluzhny refused.
It has long been known that the relationship between the president and the army chief is strained. On the one hand, the presidential office suspects Saluschny or at least those around him of harboring political ambitions. The military is extremely popular among the population. In addition, the relationship of trust has been strained since Saluschny published a detailed article on the course of the war, including an interview, in the British magazine "Economist" in November - without consultation, as the presidential office complained.
In November last year, Zelenskyi warned Zalushny in an interview with the British tabloid The Sun that he had political ambitions. "With all due respect to General Salushny and all the commanders who are on the battlefield, there is an absolute understanding of the hierarchy, there cannot be two, three, four, five," said the Ukrainian head of state. He warned his country's military leadership against entering politics. "If you wage war with the idea that tomorrow you will be involved in politics or elections, then in your words and on the front you behave like a politician and not like a military man," he said in the interview. That, says Zelensky, would be a big mistake.
czl/Reuters