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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that a broad overhaul of the country\u2019s military and civilian leadership was needed to reboot the war effort against Russia, suggesting that a major shake-up of his government was imminent.<\/p>\n
Mr. Zelensky\u2019s comments, in a broadcast on Sunday night, indicated that his plans went beyond replacing the top military commander, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhny. And they signaled a search for a new strategy among Ukraine\u2019s leadership at a precarious moment, with depleted Ukrainian forces on the defensive and leaders in Kyiv waiting to see whether the United States will provide much-needed military and financial assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cA reset, a new beginning is necessary,\u201d Mr. Zelensky told the Italian media outlet Rai News<\/a>. \u201cI have something serious in mind, which is not about a single person but about the direction of the country\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Friction between the military and the civilian government represents the most serious schism in Ukraine\u2019s leadership since the start of the war almost two years ago. The acrimony, which has been building for months, seemed to reach a breaking point last week, when Mr. Zelensky summoned General Zaluzhny for a meeting to tell him he was being fired, according to Ukrainian officials familiar with the discussion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Heightening the tension in Kyiv is the prospect of a new mobilization bill<\/a> that could lead to the drafting of up to 500,000 troops. The bill, under debate in the Ukrainian Parliament, could be politically unpopular with the country\u2019s war-weary citizenry.<\/p>\n Amid the speculation about his future, General Zaluzhny\u2019s only public comment Monday was a cryptic Facebook message to a top deputy, General Serhiy Shaptala, reminiscing about collaboration through two years of war. \u201cWe can be sure that we will never feel shame,\u201d Mr. Zaluzhny wrote.<\/p>\n The plans to reshuffle the civilian government signify a break with nearly two years of continuity in Mr. Zelensky\u2019s wartime administration as he had mostly left in place ministers serving before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. Before that, his government had been a swirling revolving door of ministers.<\/p>\n With American aid stalled, political analysts have suggested that Mr. Zelensky might promote Ukraine\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, who is seen as being in favor with the Biden administration, to a senior position in Kyiv. The U.S. government has been pushing for overhauls to strengthen anti-corruption safeguards on the billions of dollars in financial and military aid Ukraine is receiving during the war.<\/p>\n Mr. Zelensky\u2019s plans for a shake-up come after months of bloody, inconclusive fighting that have taken a toll on the nation\u2019s mood, and dented his own popularity ratings. A poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in December found that 62 percent of Ukrainians trust Mr. Zelensky, down from 80 percent earlier in the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n On the battlefield, Ukrainian forces are at perhaps their weakest point since the summer of 2022. Short of ammunition and personnel, they are struggling to hold back renewed Russian offensives across the front, with the epicenter of the fighting<\/a> around the battered city of Avdiivka in the eastern Donetsk region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Russian soldiers, using heavy cloud cover to evade detection by Ukrainian surveillance drones, managed to break into the northern outskirts of the city in recent days, according to Ukrainian soldiers in the area.<\/p>\n They are increasingly threatening a vital supply line and Ukraine\u2019s control over the city. The fall of Avdiivka would represent the Russian forces\u2019 most significant victory since they took Bakhmut in May<\/a>, and it would open up new lines of assault in the Kremlin\u2019s bid to seize the entire eastern Donbas region.<\/p>\n It could also free up resources for another Russian push taking place several hundred miles to the north, in the Kharkiv region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Moscow has amassed more than 40,000 troops and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles near Kupiansk, part of what Ukrainian military commanders said is an intensifying bid to retake territory in Kharkiv that Russian forces lost in a Ukrainian offensive more than a year ago.<\/p>\n The Ukrainian defense has been hindered by the suspension of vital American military assistance, with Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives blocking repeated efforts to provide new funding.<\/p>\n The lack of assistance has not only resulted in a critical shortage of artillery and other weapons, but has made planning for the future exceedingly difficult.<\/p>\n At the same time, Ukraine is searching for a strategy to break out of the deadlock in the trench fighting, lest it be cornered into negotiations on a settlement on unfavorable terms, Mykhailo Samus, a deputy director at the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, a military research organization in Kyiv, said in an interview. He said the coming year might bring Ukraine\u2019s last chance to shift the momentum of the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Even before the impasse in Washington, newly committed aid to Ukraine had dropped almost 90 percent between August and October compared with the same period in 2022, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy<\/a>, a German research institute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n While Senate Republicans and Democrats on Sunday unveiled a $118.3 billion bill that tied $60 billion in security aid for Ukraine to assistance for Israel as well as U.S. border security reforms, Speaker Mike Johnson, who had insisted on linking the disparate issues, has said the bill would be \u201cdead on arrival\u201d in the Republican-controlled House.<\/p>\n