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President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine removed his top general on Thursday, the ministry of defense said, after weeks of feverish speculation about his fate, enacting the most significant leadership shake-up since Russia invaded Ukraine almost two years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, a decision was made to change the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,\u201d the minister of defense, Rustem Umerov, wrote in a post on Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cWar does not remain the same. War changes and requires changes,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a statement on social media saying he had met with the general and \u201cthanked him for the two years of defending Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upheaval comes at a precarious moment for Ukraine in the war, amid intensified Russian attacks, skepticism in the United States over providing aid to Kyiv and the tensions between Ukraine\u2019s civilian and military leadership. It remained unclear whether the commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, who is widely popular in Ukraine\u2019s military and society, had resigned or been fired from the position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Gen. Zaluzhny led Ukraine\u2019s war effort from the initial, successful defense against Russia\u2019s attack through the past year of bloody, inconclusive fighting along a front that has barely shifted but where Ukrainian soldiers once again find themselves outmanned and outgunned.<\/p>\n
Mr. Zelensky said in his statement that he and the general \u201cdiscussed the renewal that the Armed Forces of Ukraine require. We also discussed who could be part of the renewed leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president said he proposed that General Zaluzhny \u201cremain part of the team.\u201d He concluded, \u201cWe will definitely win! Glory to Ukraine!”<\/p>\n
Rumors began circulating online in Ukraine last week that General Zaluzhny, 50, had been dismissed, prompting the president\u2019s office to issue a denial. A Ukrainian member of Parliament said the two men met on Jan. 29 but the fate of the country\u2019s top military commander was not decided.<\/p>\n
Two Ukrainian officials said Mr. Zelensky\u2019s government had been planning on dismissing the general all along, and only backed off briefly after the news was leaked and generated backlash from some Ukrainian political leaders and soldiers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Friction between the president and general had simmered since early in the war in a rivalry mostly hidden from public view amid military successes. The schism deepened last fall, when General Zaluzhny published an essay declaring the fighting a deadlock, contradicting Mr. Zelensky\u2019s continual, hopeful assertions of progress.<\/p>\n
That breach followed a Ukrainian counteroffensive backed by billions of dollars in Western weapons donations that failed to achieve a breakthrough, despite costing thousands of Ukrainian casualties. <\/p>\n
More recently, the two had publicly disagreed over a Ukrainian plan to draft as many as half a million men to replenish the army as a counter to Russia\u2019s renewed ground attacks in the eastern Donbas region. Though Ukrainians still overwhelmingly support the fight against Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion, the mobilization is expected to be unpopular. Many men who intended to volunteer already have.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian forces have in recent weeks been on the defensive as Russia launches fierce assaults along the front line. Kyiv did receive a boost to its war effort last week when the European Union approved<\/a> a $54 billion aid package that will help avert a near-term Ukrainian financial crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n But lawmakers in Washington this week have been unable to forge an agreement that would provide another $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, assistance that Ukrainian officials and military analysts deem as critical to Kyiv\u2019s war effort. Republicans in the Senate blocked a measure on Wednesday that would have provided funding, leading Democrats to propose an alternate bill that was being debated Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As speculation about the military commander\u2019s fate reached a fever pitch, General Zaluzhny maintained his usual low public profile. He paid tribute to a touchstone in Ukrainian military history, praising a small band of Ukrainian soldiers who repelled a much larger Russian invasion force marching on Kyiv, the capital, in 1918. The battle, he said, \u201cbecame a symbol of heroism and self-sacrifice of the young generation in the fight against the aggressor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe thank everyone who is currently defending the state, its independence and future,\u201d he said. Throughout the past two weeks, he offered no public comments.<\/p>\n When the war with Russia began in 2014, General Zaluzhny, who was educated in a Soviet cadet school in Odesa but served most of his career in the Ukrainian army after independence, was appointed deputy commander of forces fighting along a violent section of frontline near the eastern cities of Debaltseve and Bakhmut, where he gained experience commanding troops in combat.<\/p>\n Mr. Zelensky appointed General Zaluzhny commander of the military\u2019s general staff in 2021, before Russia\u2019s invasion. Military analysts have credited the general with preparing the army in the weeks and days before the attack by flying jets to reserve airfields and moving troops from barracks that were subsequently bombed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Zelensky\u2019s frustration with his top general burst into the public eye in early November, after General Zaluzhny published his essay calling the war a \u201cstalemate<\/a>.\u201d The Ukrainian president suggested the comment was helpful to the Russians, a striking rebuke.<\/p>\n Around the same time, the president\u2019s office replaced one of General Zaluzhny\u2019s deputies, the head of special operations forces, without providing any explanation. It also dismissed the head of Ukraine\u2019s medical forces.<\/p>\n Criticism against General Zaluzhny reached a new level in late November, when Mariana Bezuhla, a lawmaker and former member of Mr. Zelensky\u2019s political party, appeared to call for the commander\u2019s departure, accusing him of failing to plan carefully for the next stage of the war.<\/p>\n