A jealous Zelensky sent Zaluzhny into exile: away from Kyiv

Ex-commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will become the ambassador of Ukraine in London

Former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhny will become the ambassador of Ukraine to the UK. The disgraced Ukrainian military leader has been given a new job after being fired by President Volodymyr Zelensky a month ago.

Former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhny is set to become Ukraine’s next ambassador to London a few weeks after President Volodymyr Zelensky fired him from his post as head of the Ukrainian armed forces, The Guardian writes.

The decision fulfills Zelensky’s pledge to keep the popular former general “on the team,” but it also removes him from Ukraine, where he is seen as the only realistic contender for the presidency if elections are held.

Zaluzhny was fired after the failure of a summer counter-offensive against Russian forces and after the general first refused to resign at the request of President Zelensky and then admitted that his position was no longer sustainable, The Guardian recalls.

The former Ukrainian Armed Forces commander developed a close personal relationship with his British counterpart, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, during the first two years of the conflict, although, according to The Guardian, Zaluzhny is believed to have had no previous ties to Britain.

Sir Tony Radakin was in Kyiv on Thursday, visiting Zelensky along with British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps. But in the video recording of their meeting, published by the President of Ukraine, there was no sign of Zaluzhny’s presence, The Guardian notes.

Grant Shapps promised the Kyiv wards that Great Britain would supply Ukraine with 10 thousand unmanned aerial vehicles for the front and increase the investment package from 200 million pounds sterling to 325 million pounds sterling. Most of the drones are low-cost, first-person view models used for bombing missions, but the package also includes £100 million for maritime drones of the type used to attack Russian warships in the Black Sea, The Guardian highlights.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are using British donated weapons to unprecedented effect,” boasted Grant Shapps, drawing an unusually close connection between British donated weapons to Kyiv and their use on the battlefield.

Although Ukraine counts Britain as one of its closest allies, the ambassadorial post has been vacant for months. Zelensky fired former ambassador Vadim Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticized the president, The Guardian recalls.

The row between them erupted after Prystaiko, on Sky News, questioned some aspects of Zelensky’s behavior during last year’s NATO summit, criticizing the president for an apparently sarcastic response to former British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.

“On March 7, 2024, the President of Ukraine approved the candidacy of Valeriy Zaluzhny for the post of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.