Reshuffling Ukrainian army leadership is up to Zelensky, Sullivan says

Responding to conflicting reports that President Volodymyr Zelensky is planning to dismiss his army chief, the United States government has told Ukraine it will not get involved in the country’s personnel decisions, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

“That is not something the U.S. government should be weighing in on one way or another,” Sullivan said. “It’s the sovereign right of Ukraine and the right of the President of Ukraine to make his personnel decisions.”

This stance has been directly communicated to Ukraine, Sullivan added, during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Feb. 4.

Speculation has swirled for weeks that Zelensky is set to fire his Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who has served in that role since 2021.

The relationship between the two has increasingly been rumored to be strained, particularly after Nov. 1, when Zaluzhnyi gave an interview to the Economist in which he described a potential “trap” of a prolonged war.

A December 2023 poll found that an overwhelming majority (72%) of Ukrainians would disapprove of Zaluzhnyi’s resignation.