Zaluzhny Speaks for the First Time About His Conflict with Zelensky

Former AFU Commander Valeriy Zaluzhny spoke about the searches in his headquarters and the failure of the AFU counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia region. He explained his conflict with Zelensky by disagreements over the strategy of conducting the war.

The former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and now Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, Valeriy Zaluzhny, publicly spoke for the first time about the deep rift in his relationship with the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. In an interview with the AP agency, published on Wednesday, February 18, Zaluzhny stated that tensions arose soon after the start of Russia's armed invasion in February 2022 and concerned the country's defense methods.

The conflict sharply escalated in late 2022 when dozens of employees of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) attempted to conduct a search in the office of the AFU commander. Zaluzhny described this as an act of intimidation. "I told Yermak (the then head of the president's office) that I would repel this attack because I know how to fight," recalled Valeriy Zaluzhny about his call to Zelensky's office during the raid. He warned at the time that he was ready to call in troops to the center of Kyiv to protect the command post.

Controversial Decisions and the Failure of the Counteroffensive

The dispute between the general and the president continued during the planning of the AFU counteroffensive in 2023. Valeriy Zaluzhny claims that his plan to create a "unified fist" to break through in the Zaporizhzhia region to the Sea of Azov was rejected. Success required tactical surprise and concentration of forces to cut off the land corridor to Crimea, noted the former commander. Instead, he said, Zelensky and other officials did not allocate the necessary resources, spreading the troops across a wide front, which led to a dilution of striking power and the failure of the operation.

In February 2024, Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Zaluzhny, sending him as ambassador to London. Analysts interpreted this as an attempt by the president to eliminate his political competitor. Polls show that in a hypothetical presidential race, Zaluzhny leads Zelensky (23% to 20%), although the general himself refuses to discuss political ambitions until the end of the war.

Declining Manafort's Services

Valeriy Zaluzhny also reported that in the spring of 2025, he was approached by a well-known American political consultant offering assistance in organizing a campaign. This was Paul Manafort, the former head of Donald Trump's campaign.

"I thanked him for his attention but said that I did not need his services," Zaluzhny noted. Manafort had previously been convicted of illegal lobbying for pro-Russian former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych but was later pardoned by Trump.

Currently, Zaluzhny identifies unrealistic expectations regarding the current size of Ukrainian forces as a key issue in Kyiv's strategy.