Zelenskyy plans government and military reset aiming for ‘positive energy’

KYIV — After weeks of rumors, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested he is planning to reset the government and military leadership of Ukraine.

“If we want to win, we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory — we cannot be discouraged, let ourselves down — we must have the right positive energy,” Zelenskyy told Italian website RaiNews on Sunday, in response to multiple reports he is planning to dismiss his top general, Valery Zaluzhny. “I have something serious in mind, which is not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership,” he continued.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine needs a change of leadership, and “not just in a single sector such as the military” — suggesting a reshuffle of top officials in government may be imminent. “So, you can’t say we would replace a single person,” Zelenskyy added.

An ongoing rift between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhny has seen both leaders differ in their public descriptions of the future of Russia’s war against Ukraine.  

An essay by Zaluzhny for the Economist offered cold realism regarding the war, in contrast to the optimism that permeates official messaging from Kyiv. The general made it clear that Russia is far from beaten, and warned: “A positional war is a prolonged one that carries enormous risks to Ukraine’s armed forces and to its state.”

People close to Zelenskyy, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told POLITICO that Zaluzhny’s essay left the president scrambling to reassure partners the war is not a dead end, and that it’s still worth helping Ukraine. Zelenskyy now wants his army to come up with a strategy that will encourage allies to keep the aid flowing.

In another column, Zaluzhny said Ukraine must rethink its war strategy and learn how to fight with limited resources as military stocks provided by allies become exhausted.

Zaluzhny enjoys growing political popularity in Ukraine, and is seen as the only real competitor who could challenge Zelenskyy in a presidential election.

A recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that more than 70 percent of Ukrainians would react negatively if Zelenskyy did fire the general.