LONDON, January 31. /TASS/. Ukrainian top military commander Valery Zaluzhny has turned down President Vladimir Zelensky's proposal to take the post of National Security and Defense Council secretary, The Economist reported, citing sources.

According to the newspaper, on the evening of January 29, Zelensky held a meeting with Zaluzhny, during which he informed the general of his decision to send him into retirement and offered him the post of National Security and Defense Council secretary. The top Ukrainian defense official rejected the president's proposal, the sources said.

On Monday, former Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) lawmaker Borislav Bereza said that Zaluzhny had been removed from the post of Ukrainian top military commander. For his part, Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Alexey Goncharenko (listed as a terrorist and extremist by Russia's Federal Service for Financial Monitoring) said that two of his sources confirmed this information. He later said that Zaluzhny had been notified of his resignation, but that there had been no decree to that effect. According to the lawmaker, Zaluzhny was offered the post of ambassador to a European country, but the commander-in-chief refused.

The mass media then spread the information that the decree concerning Zaluzhny had already been signed and that Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov would be appointed instead. Some Telegram channels also reported the resignation of Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. At the time, the Defense Ministry said that the information spread was not true. However, this raised questions in the media as to whether the ministry was denying the resignation of both the minister and the commander-in-chief, or just Umerov. Ukrainian presidential spokesman Sergey Nikiforov then said that Zelensky had not fired Zaluzhny.