Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he is weighing a possible dismissal of the country's top military officer, a prospect that has shocked the population fighting Russia's invasion.
Asked whether he was considering the ouster of General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Zelenskiy told Italian RAI TV in an interview released late on Sunday that he was thinking about it as part of a broader issue of setting the country's path.
He said that "a reset, a new beginning is necessary" and it is "not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership".
"I’m thinking about this replacement but you can't say here we replaced a single person," Zelenskiy said.
"When we talk about this, I mean a replacement of a series of state leaders, not just in a single sector like the military. If we want to win we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory, we cannot be discouraged, let our arms fall, we must have the right positive energy."
Zelenskiy's comments marked his first confirmation that he was considering firing the widely popular general, a possibility that caused an uproar in Ukraine and delighted the Kremlin as the war approaches its second anniversary.
According to Ukrainian and foreign media reports, Zelenskiy last week offered Zaluzhnyi to resign but the general refused.
Zaluzhnyi has not commented on the issue.
The tensions between the president and Zaluznyi have been rising as the country grapples with dire ammunition and personnel shortages following a failed counter-offensive.
The need for a broad mobilisation to fill the ranks has reportedly been one of the areas of disagreement.
Zelenskiy said at the end of last year that he had turned down the military’s request to mobilise up to 500,000 people, demanding more details about how it would be organised and paid for.
A rift between Zaluzhnyi and Zelenskiy first broke into the open last autumn when the general acknowledged in an interview with the Economist that the fighting with Russia had stalemated.
The president strongly denied that was the case.
Zaluzhnyi is viewed as a hero by most Ukrainians, with the memories of the stunning underdog victories against Russia in 2022 outweighing the failure of last year's counter-offensive in the minds of many.
In a December 2023 poll of Ukrainians by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 72 per cent said they would view the dismissal of Zaluzhnyi negatively and only 2 per cent would see it positively.
Other polls indicate Zaluzhnyi is more popular than Zelenskiy.
Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko came to the defence of Zaluzhnyi on Monday.
"Society is discussing and anxiously waiting the outcome of the situation with the president's plans to dismiss the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi," Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
"In many ways, it was thanks to Zaluzhnyi that Ukrainians truly believed in our Armed Forces, which enjoy the greatest trust today. As a soldier in the war, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi went through many difficult moments. Only he himself knows how much in reality," the mayor said.
"But, unfortunately, today is the moment when politics can prevail over common sense and the interests of the state."
Klitschko called for an end to political intrigues and internal power struggles in Kyiv.
"We must fight for one thing today - for the victory of Ukraine," he wrote.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the talk about Zaluzhnyi's dismissal exposed rifts in the Ukrainian leadership.
with Reuters and DPA
