Ukrainian soldiers fighting on the eastern front reacted with skepticism to comments by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hinting of a possible shakeup in top leadership positions, including the military.
In a series of interviews conducted by the Reuters news agency, some unit commanders on the ground said that a possible dismissal of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi would not be appropriate at this time. Zaluzhnyi is Ukraine’s top military commander.
“The most popular (commanders) are those who are here, and who fight alongside the lads, who sit in the trenches,” said a 31-year-old anti-tank unit commander who asked to be introduced by his call sign, Tiger.
Tiger added that whoever was in charge should ensure the arrival of fresh replacement troops and a larger supply of drones — both of which Zaluzhnyi has sought.
Another soldier said, “If our government wants to change someone, these changes should only make things better, and not worse.”
According to a December 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 72% of Ukrainians would view the dismissal of Zaluzhnyi negatively, with only 2% seeing it positively.
In an interview with Italian state broadcaster Rai News 24 Sunday, Zelenskyy said, “A reset is necessary,” as he considers who would be the best people to lead various sectors in Ukraine.
“If we want to win, we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory. We cannot be discouraged, let our arms fall. We must have the right positive energy,” he said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko criticized the possibility of Zaluzhnyi’s firing, saying it was due to the general’s leadership that “many Ukrainians truly trust the armed forces.”
“Today is a moment when politics might prevail over reason and country’s interests,” Klitschko said on social media. The mayor of Ukraine’s capital city has been a vocal critic of Zelenskyy. The presidency in turn has accused Klitschko’s office of inefficiencies.
Citing Ukrainian and Western media reports, The Associated Press reports that Zelenskyy asked Zaluzhnyi to resign last week, but the general refused. Zaluzhnyi has not commented publicly on the reports.
Tensions between him and the president have been rising since a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive, which was launched in June with the help of an array of Western weapons, failed to produce major territorial gains in Russian-occupied areas, disappointing allies.
The Ukrainian president has also been at odds with Zaluzhnyi’s push for a broad military recruitment of up to 500,000 in 2024.
But the soldiers in the Donetsk region, many of them volunteers, who are still fighting after two years of full-scale war, told Reuters they no longer want to shoulder the entire burden of the conflict.
“The mobilization is necessary, because we don’t have enough people; the enemy has a great advantage over us in the number of soldiers,” said a soldier by the name of Ihor.
Tiger estimated 60%-70% of the original 59th brigade was still serving, and it had not been able to fill all the gaps left by those who have been killed or injured or who have been discharged for other reasons.
Mykola, 59, said he would go home when he turned 60, in line with the current rules and added he felt for younger soldiers who didn’t have that option.
“Everyone has to understand that the entire country of Ukraine is at war, not just those who have been fighting for the last two years,” he said.
In the city of Kherson, four people were killed and at least one was injured by Russian shelling, local officials said.
Video from the site, released by the regional prosecutor’s office, showed a completely burned-out car that caught fire after an explosion, with two bodies found inside, officials said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian forces regularly target Kherson from occupied territories on the eastern bank of the major Dnipro River that divides the region.
Russia on Monday accused Ukraine of carrying out what the Kremlin called a “monstrous” attack on a bakery in a Russia-occupied city in eastern Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov further called Saturday’s attack in Lysychansk a “terrorist act” on peaceful infrastructure.
Russia said the attack killed 28 people.
Lysychansk had a population of about 110,000 people before Russia’s invasion. It fell to Russia in the summer of 2022 and is 15 kilometers (9.32 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Ukrainian officials did not comment on the attack.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of conducting attacks on civilian sites. Ukraine reporting frequent Russian missile and drone strikes targeting Ukrainian cities.
Some material for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.