The Ukrainian president allegedly believes that he is being kept in the dark about the situation at the front
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky yells at his generals, who he believes are hiding the truth from him, a government official has claimed in an interview with The Economist.
Purported fits of rage were mentioned in a Monday report about the situation in Kharkov Region, where Russian forces gained significant ground earlier this month. According to the British newsweekly, Ukrainian troops deployed there are angry at the development and have competing theories about the causes.
Some blame the US and its allies for insufficient and untimely aid, not unlike Zelensky himself, while others “suspect that incompetence, or even treachery, played a more significant role.” There are also “conspiracy theories” about politicians in Kiev and Washington conspiring to sell the territory “down the river ahead of an ugly peace deal.”
Denis Yaroslavsky, a local commander who made national headlines for complaining that fortifications that were supposed to prevent Russian advances did not really exist, told the magazine that Zelensky “is being kept in a warm bath” – that is, told comforting lies by his aides. The government source, who was not named, said the president has been clashing with Ukrainian generals after allegedly sensing that he was not getting the whole truth about the frontline situation.
Zelensky’s strained relations with the military leadership, which reportedly stems from him putting his political goals ahead of military objectives, has previously been covered by Ukrainian and international media.
In December, the newspaper Ukrainskaya Pravda claimed that the president was actively undermining Valery Zaluzhny, who at the time was Ukraine’s most senior general, in favor of Aleksandr Syrsky.
“It seems Zelensky has two kinds of troops: ‘good’ ones commanded by Syrsky and other favorites and ‘bad’ ones under Zaluzny,” a source told the outlet. “This demoralizes [Zaluzhny] and prevents him from commanding the army as a whole.”
In February, the Ukrainian leader fired Zalyzhny and appointed Syrsky as his replacement.
A profile of Zelensky published by Time magazine last November said the president’s uncompromising drive for a battlefield victory over Russia was “verging on the messianic” and had put him at odds with some officers.
A military official described how at one point the president’s office issued a direct order to a unit on the ground to “retake” a certain city, and received the reply: “With what?” The unit had neither weapons nor soldiers, the source explained.
