By spreading rumors about an alleged conflict between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Valery Zaluzhny, Moscow is trying to sow discord among Ukrainians, a top Ukrainian official claims.
Speaking on Ukrainian national television on March 7, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, pointed out that the claims about an alleged dispute between Zelensky and Zaluzhny over the potential withdrawal from the key Donbas city of Bakhmut are false.
Citing sources in the Ukrainian political leadership, the German newspaper Bild claimed in an article in Monday that the further actions of the Ukrainian military in the Bakhmut area have sparked disagreements between Zelensky and Zaluzhny.
As Bild’s sources claimed, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces advised Ukraine’s president to withdraw the Ukrainian defense forces and abandon Bakhmut – known as Artyomovsk in Russia- citing tactical reasons.
In a sign that Ukraine’s head of state and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces had fundamentally different views on how Ukraine’s army should deal with Bakhmut, Zelensky reportedly refused to pull troops from the city and declared Bakhmut a fortress.
Ukraine’s president, who, according to the Bild article, feared a morale hit that such a move would cause, also denied the existence of a conflict with his top general, pointing out that there are many disinformation messages from sources who can’t access completely closed conversations about Ukraine’s defense
Zelensky stressed that both Zaluzhnyi and Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander of Ukraine’s Ground Forces, had informed him about the situation in Bakhmut.
Noting that someone really wants them to have discord there, Danilov pointed out that one of Russia’s goals has always been the internal destabilization of Ukraine and added that Moscow is now trying in practice the tactic of internal destabilization since cannot defeat Ukraine by military means.
Referring to an earlier peace agreement that scaled back the fighting in 2015, but did not halt it, Danilov added that Moscow is doing everything possible and impossible to issue so-called Minsk-3 (agreements).
