MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. Ukrainian top military commander Valery Zaluzhny chose the completely wrong strategy for the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which led to its stalemate, Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) lawmaker Yevgeny Shevchenko said.
"For seven months we have been promoting the counteroffensive and in the end we went where we were expected - right into the minefields. Is this the genius of the military commander's thinking? <...> Stop making fools out of us. <...> We thought he was a great commander," Shevchenko said.
According to the lawmaker, Ukrainian troops showed they didn't know what they were doing, going head-on instead of developing a more sophisticated strategy and using diversionary maneuvers, which resulted in "Zaluzhny’s stalemate."
He also criticized Kiev's desire to receive American F-16 fighter jets from its allies. According to Shevchenko, the appearance of these planes will in no way be able to turn the tide of hostilities, because in the current situation their scope of application is very limited. According to him, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is carrying out Zaluzhny's orders, asking allies for what the commander-in-chief considers necessary, but nothing comes of this because of incompetence.
The Ukrainian army has been making unsuccessful offensive attempts since June 4. According to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, despite significant losses, the Ukrainian military has not been able to achieve any tactically significant success.
Is there a conflict?
Shevchenko's statement came amid intensified speculation about a possible conflict between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, as well as the fact that the commander-in-chief may run for president. These discussions resumed after the publication of Zaluzhny's article and interview in the Economist, in which he said that the Ukrainian conflict had reached a stalemate. Zelensky's administration expressed dissatisfaction with the publication of these materials, while the president himself said that he disagreed with the commander-in-chief's opinion.
According to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov, the very fact that the article was published without the permission of the presidential administration and without the approval of the talking points is not business as usual for the state apparatus and shows that Zaluzhny considers himself an independent political figure.
The discussion of such an obvious discord between the president and the commander-in-chief into the media space forced the head of Zelensky's office, Andrey Yermak, to make a statement that there was no alleged rift between them. However, this had almost the opposite effect. At the same time, Ukrainian analysts pointed out that the issue of Zaluzhny's possible presidential candidacy is often raised by media resources and bloggers associated with former head of state Pyotr Poroshenko.