"UP": Zelensky communicates with the commanders of the Armed Forces bypassing Zaluzhnyi

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy communicates with some commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, bypassing Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, which prevents Zaluzhnyy from commanding the entire army, according to sources of Ukrayinska Pravda.

The publication published an article "War against politics. What is really happening between Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi" in furtherance of the topic of a possible conflict between the president and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, which has been developing since early November. Zelenskyy and his office deny that there is a conflict.

"You see, sometimes it seems that Zelensky has two types of Armed Forces: "good" ones, commanded by [the commander of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces] Oleksandr Syrskyi and other favorites, and "bad" ones, which are subordinate to Zaluzhnyi. This greatly demotivates the commander-in-chief and, most importantly, prevents him from commanding the entire army," said one of the interlocutors.

According to Ukrayinska Pravda's sources, Zelenskyy has created "parallel tracks" for communication with commanders of various branches of the military, which bypasses Zaluzhnyi.

Direct contact with the commanders speeds up Zelensky's work, but destabilizes the work of the Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, who learns some information from his formal subordinates "only at the bets, if at all," the newspaper claims.

The President's Office has not yet commented on the publication.

As an example of disagreements, the authors of the article cited the dismissal of military commissars, which could have led to the disruption of mobilization plans, and the dismissal of several commanders. Their dismissal brings instability to the chain of command, the newspaper writes.

In early November, Zaluzhnyi wrote in The Economist that the war was at a stalemate. Zelensky publicly disagreed with him. Later, in an interview with the British tabloid Sun, the Ukrainian president said that the military, which is going to be involved in politics, should not be involved in war.

In late November, The Economist published a new article about the confrontation between Ukraine's political and military leadership, which, according to the publication, began to escalate amid a counteroffensive that had reached a dead end. According to the publication, the relationship between Zelenskyy and Zaluzhnyy is described by those close to him as "terrible."