Kyiv, November 07 2023, The Europe Today: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on Ukrainians to remain united, days after a rift emerged between his office and the country’s commander-in-chief as the war with Russia grinds on.
The Ukrainian leader, who also said it was not the right time for wartime elections in a speech late on Monday, entreated Ukrainians to strengthen the country and not to be drawn into dangerous infighting that could imperil the war effort.
“Now everyone should think about defending our country. We need to pull ourselves together, avoid unwinding and splitting up into disputes or other priorities,” he said. “If there is no victory, there will be no country. Our victory is possible.”
Zelenskiy’s call came after tensions burst into the open over the weekend between the president’s office and his top general Valery Zaluzhnyi, who likened the state of the battlefield with Russia to a stalemate from World War One.
Days later, Zelenskiy rejected the idea of any stalemate in the war, while his foreign affairs adviser said Zaluzhnyi’s remarks about the war to The Economist had been “very strange” and could play into Russia’s hands.
The idea of a battlefield stalemate is highly sensitive in Kyiv, as it has repeatedly said it is opposed to any negotiations with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin whose troops, it says, must first be withdrawn from its land.
In another apparent breakdown in communication, Zelenskiy on Friday replaced the head of his Special Operations Forces who said he only learned of his dismissal from media reports and that Zaluzhnyi – his boss – had also been kept in the dark.
The signs of strain come as pressure builds on Kyiv on the frontlines and beyond.
Kyiv is five months into a counteroffensive that has not made a major breakthrough in the heavily defended occupied south and east. Questions are also swirling over the sustainability of Western military aid and Kyiv fears it is entering a second winter of sustained Russian air strikes on its power grid.
