Categories: UKRAINE

Zaluzhnyi tells Austin that he is being “interfered with”

Zaluzhnyi tells Austin that he is being "interfered with"

Zaluzhnyi tells Austin that he is being “interfered with”, in particular in the President’s Office.

During US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s visit to Kyiv, Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi told him about the interference of the OP and that he was being “interfered with.”

This was reported by Ukrainska Pravda, Ukrainian media outlet, citing sources.

“According to Ukrainska Pravda, the General Staff’s calculations show that to fulfill the president’s task of liberating the entire territory of Ukraine, forces and means worth 350-400 billion dollars are needed,” the publication writes.

During US Secretary of Defense Austin’s visit to Kyiv, the General Staff shared some planning ideas with him.

“Austin was told about the need for 17 million shells. He was surprised, to put it mildly, because the whole world cannot collect that many shells,” a senior defense official said.

According to the source, Austin said that Zaluzhny complained to him about the interference of the OP: “Austin later told us that Zaluzhnyi complained about how he was being interfered with, that the Office was not like this, this was not like that, the other was not like that. Well, it’s clear that the president heard about such conversations. And they do not promote trust.“

Ukrainska Pravda notes that the President’s Office is worried that Zaluzhny’s dismissal will help his political career.

And interlocutors in Zelensky’s environment said that a significant part of President Zelensky’s team is categorically against the resignation of the current chief of staff.

Ukrainian civil society states that this is is nothing more than an informational sabotage of Andriy Yermak [head of President’s office] to discredit the Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhnuy and blame the Lloyd Austin’.

To remind, during his recent visit to Kyiv Lloyd Austin met with Valeriy Zaluzhnyi without the President Office representatives.

To this end, Rostyslav Shaposhnikov, in his video blog investigetes the direct connections of Ukrainska Pravda media outlet with the President’s office through UP’s business owner Tom Fial and oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. He states that this media perform direct tasks to discredit the Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhnyi.

UDP: The Ukrainska Pravda outlet has changed its original text with breaking formulation. Earlier in the news there was wording: “Austin also said that Zaluzhny complained to him about OP’s interference“. Now the text is “In private conversations, Austin said that Zaluzhnyi constantly complains to his generals about OP, how he is being hindered.“

Ukraine Front Lines