Kathrine Frich
Ukraine’s former army chief has spoken publicly about a dramatic wartime clash with President Volodymyr Zelensky
He described a 2022 raid on his headquarters as intimidation.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, now Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, addressed the episode in an interview with The Associated Press, as speculation grows over his political future.
Office confrontation
According to AP, Zaluzhnyi said tensions with Zelenskyy escalated months after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, largely over military strategy.
He described how dozens of agents from Ukraine’s Security Service arrived at his Kyiv office during a successful counteroffensive in the northeast.
More than a dozen British officers were present at the time, he said.
Zaluzhnyi recalled warning the president’s chief of staff, Andrii Yermak: “I told Yermak that I would repel this attack, because I know how to fight.”
Disputed account
Zelenskyy’s office and the SBU declined to comment to the AP. The news agency said it could not independently verify Zaluzhnyi’s version of events.
Court documents cited by the AP indicated the search was linked to an investigation into a strip club allegedly operated by a criminal group at the same address.
Zaluzhnyi dismissed that explanation, saying the venue had already closed and that authorities could not have confused it with the military’s wartime command centre.
The episode, he suggested, risked exposing internal divisions at a time when national unity was critical.
Strategic fallout
Relations between the two men remained strained, particularly over the 2023 counteroffensive.
Zaluzhnyi said the original NATO-backed plan required concentrating forces into a “single fist” to sever Russia’s land corridor to Crimea.
Instead, he argued, troops were dispersed too widely, weakening the assault. Two Western defence officials, speaking anonymously to the AP, confirmed that the operation diverged from its initial blueprint.
Zelenskyy removed Zaluzhnyi as commander in February 2024 and appointed him ambassador to London, a move widely seen by political observers as sidelining a potential rival.
Political undertones
Polls cited by the AP show Zaluzhnyi narrowly ahead of Zelenskyy in a hypothetical future election, though he insists he has no political ambitions while martial law remains in place.
“Until the war is over or martial law ends, I am not discussing this and have done nothing toward that,” he said.
Analysts say his remarks could still influence public opinion as Ukraine faces continued Russian advances and mounting international pressure to negotiate an end to the war.
Sources: The Associated Pres, Express.
