President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has approved the candidacy of former Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi for the post of Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Source. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The Ministry has sent a request to the British government for prior consent to accept Zaluzhnyi as the head of Ukraine's diplomatic mission.
Zelenskyy dismissed Zaluzhnyi from the post of the main committee of the Armed Forces on 8 February, replacing him with Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyy, who had previously commanded the Ukrainian Land Forces.
The head of state explained this decision as a necessity for change. However, sources in a number of Western media outlets noted that the reason was the disagreement between the president and the general, which escalated after Ukraine's unsuccessful counter-offensive in the summer of 2023.
Zelenskyy publicly denied Zaluzhnyi's words, who said in autumn that the war had reached a "stalemate". The president also did not follow his recommendation to mobilise another 500,000 new soldiers.
Washington Post sources noted that Zaluzhnyi was offered to resign 10 days before the official announcement. Even then, he was promised the post of ambassador to the UK, but the general refused, as it was a civilian position, and as a career military man, he did not want to leave the army.
In July 2023, the President of Ukraine dismissed Ukraine's Ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, for unknown reasons.
This happened a week after Prystaiko called President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's remarks that he could thank British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace for military assistance every morning "unhealthy sarcasm".