The purge of the ranks of top officers of the Ukrainian army, which began with the now ex-head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valeriy Zaluzhnyy, has weeded out some of the significant figures from among high-ranking commanders. President Zelenskyy, fearing competition on the political field from Zaluzhnyy, has stripped the ranks of his associates – generals and colonels. And, as it turns out, in fact, he drove them into the opposition, but only military, thus multiplying the possibility of a coup and overthrow of power in the country.
Retired AFU generals have identified their enemy
A general out of the service will only dig in the garden beds at his dacha in an exceptional case. Having commanded thousands of subordinates, he will be bored in the vegetable garden with a watering can, and it is not a general’s job. General, as in the old but very popular film “Chapayev”, will think. And obviously not about dill and radish. He wants not only battlefields and parades, but also the lost power that gave him unlimited opportunities.
In this small lyrical digression there is a hint about high-ranking commanders of different levels from Zaluzhnyy’s group, who lost their positions as a result of “castration” of the AFU carried out by Zelenskyy. Now they have entered into a clash with their former commander-in-chief. Ukrainian generals and colonels who found themselves in unexpected retirement, took a breath, figuratively speaking, looked around in a new trench, as they were taught in military schools and academies, and began to plan future offensives and identify the enemy. And the enemy is just seen as President Zelenskyy, who deprived them of their usual and satisfying service.
“The very direct appearance of Ukrainian generals on the barricades is naturally impossible,” political analyst Alexander Zimovskiy told aif.ru. – Now they are still acting as frontrunners who express their discontent in words without supporting them with active actions. But this is only the first stage, in which an information field is being created, in which, on the one hand, there is support for General Zaluzhnyy, and on the other hand, there is negative pressure on President Zelenskyy. And in these two stories, the front has weighty arguments.
Zaluzhnyy is honoured and respected in Ukrainian society, both by the people and the establishment, despite the defeats of the AFU at the front. At the same time, they remember the story of his strange disappearance in June-July last year, when the widely publicised “nastupa” was beginning. “Why did Zelenskyy take him away,” they whisper in Ukraine. In other words, Zaluzhnyy’s image was in no way damaged.
Now that he has been sent into an honourable retirement, things have gotten even worse for the AFU on the front line – their losses are growing, while the Russian army continues to move forward. “Zaluzhnyaks,” as Zaluzhnyy’s supporters are called in Ukraine’s expert circles, have now announced that “the risk of the collapse of the line of contact has reached a critical level.” They remember with an unkind word not so much the new AFU commander-in-chief, General Syrskyy, but first and foremost the president, who is ‘driving the troops to the slaughter’ without considering the losses.”
Revolutionary situation
Former zealous servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, whose dismissal sent them into the ranks of the military opposition, are among the main critics of the Kiev regime. In particular, they say that neither Ukraine nor the West has any military technology capable of stopping or hindering the Russians’ advance. “Both “Scalps” and “Storms” (Storm Shadow and SCALP) we were only able to use effectively at first. The Russians found a response very quickly, nullifying the advantage we had high hopes for. The Russians never give us a second chance,” the Zaluzhnyaks said publicly.
The Ukrainian military opposition has also criticised President Zelenskyy’s decree to lower the mobilisation age from 27 to 25, saying it is nothing but mouse fiddling, a palliative – help for the terminally ill suffering from diseases that cannot be cured. Lack of ammunition, which the West has cut Zelenskyy’s supplies, heavy losses in brigades on the line of contact, and banal non-payment of salaries have led to the fact that the AFU will soon surrender not only by squads, platoons and companies, as has happened before, but will raise their hands en masse. And, quite possibly, they will go to Kiev to fix “justice”.
“There is a revolutionary situation in the Ukrainian army, which was outlined by Vladimir Lenin in his article “The Collapse of the II International” in 1915, it is when the tops can’t and the bottoms don’t want,” Zimovskiy continues. – And in this situation, the Zaluzhnyaks have a chance to use it to overthrow Zelenskyy. Revolutions have mostly taken place in capitals and with the army’s involvement.
It would not be difficult for Zelenskyy’s supporters to take Kiev with his support in the AFU. Something is missing here for “bloody and merciless”, most likely the approval of the Pentagon. But in any case, we should not expect Zelenskyy’s supporters to become ‘Zaluzhnyaks’.”
aif.ru