Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has admitted publicly for the first time that he is seeking to replace the country’s most senior military commander, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“A reset, a new beginning is necessary,” Zelensky told the Italian outlet Rai News in an interview broadcast on Sunday night, when asked about rumours of Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal.
At a meeting last Monday, Zelenskiy told Zaluzhnyi he planned to replace him, according to those with knowledge of the conversation, and offered the general a chance to resign.
As the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches, Ukraine is dealing with exhaustion among troops at the front and in society at large, as well as an increasingly less favourable international backdrop.
In recent weeks, the Russians have advanced to positions close to the outskirts of Avdiivka, an industrial city just outside Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia-backed forces since 2014.
At a campaign event last week, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, boasted that Moscow’s forces had seized “19 houses” on the outskirts of Avdiivka and were holding on to them.
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