Ukraine’s ousted army chief told the Associated Press he blames Zelensky for the failed 2023 counteroffensive and described a previously unreported raid on his office in 2022
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and former commander in chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, gave the Associated Press a wide-ranging interview in which he described his deepening rift with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the interview, published on February 18, Zaluzhnyi said tensions surfaced almost immediately after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The tensions reached a breaking point that fall, he said, when dozens of officers from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) arrived to search his office.
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The incident, he said, took place in mid-September 2022, as Ukrainian forces were mounting their counteroffensive in the country’s northeast. SBU agents arrived at his Kyiv office while British military officers were present. They did not explain what they were looking for, Zaluzhnyi said, and he refused to let them inspect documents or computers. He viewed the move as an act of intimidation.
In front of the SBU officers, Zaluzhnyi phoned Andriy Yermak, then the head of Zelensky’s office, and told him he would “repel this attack, because I know how to fight,” adding that he was prepared to involve the military if necessary. He also called Vasyl Malyuk, then the head of the SBU. Malyuk told him he knew nothing about the search, Zaluzhnyi said.
Two days earlier, Zaluzhnyi later learned, the SBU had requested a court warrant to search the same address. The warrant described the premises as a strip club allegedly run by a criminal organization. But the establishment named in the court document had closed before the full-scale Russian invasion, the AP reported. Zaluzhnyi said it was hard to believe the SBU was unaware of that.
In a statement released after the interview, the SBU offered a different account. During the period Zaluzhnyi described, the agency said it had been conducting searches at numerous addresses as part of a separate criminal investigation into organized crime. One of those addresses, the SBU said, had recently been used as a concealed backup command post for Zaluzhnyi. The SBU insisted it conducted no searches or investigative actions there. The agency added that Malyuk and Zaluzhnyi spoke “immediately and personally” and resolved the matter.
In the AP interview, Zaluzhnyi also returned to the 2023 counteroffensive. The plan he developed with NATO partners for the summer campaign, he argued, collapsed because Zelensky and other officials failed to allocate the necessary resources.
The original strategy called for concentrating sufficient forces into a “single fist” to liberate the Zaporizhzhia region and push toward the Sea of Azov, severing Russia’s land corridor to annexed Crimea. Zaluzhnyi said the plan hinged on massing forces for a decisive, surprise strike, but instead troops were dispersed across a broad front, blunting the offensive.
In December 2023, Zelensky acknowledged that the counteroffensive had fallen short of expectations, citing insufficient weapons from allies and limited manpower that made a rapid breakthrough impossible.
Zaluzhnyi told the AP that since his dismissal in February 2024, he had kept a close eye on the battlefield but no longer played any role in shaping military decisions. He said he and Zelensky have met twice since then and had “absolutely friendly” conversations.
Zaluzhnyi deflected questions about his political ambitions. “Until the war is over or martial law ends, I am not discussing this and have done nothing toward that,” he said.
That hasn’t stopped political operatives from approaching him. Party officials and consultants have offered to help build a campaign infrastructure, the AP reported. In the spring of 2025, a “fairly well-known” American political consultant reached out, according to Zaluzhnyi. A source familiar with the matter told the AP the person was Paul Manafort, who managed Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Zaluzhnyi said he thanked the individual but declined his services.
Analysts and pollsters have repeatedly described Zaluzhnyi as Zelensky’s most formidable potential rival in a presidential race. A poll published in January 2025 found that 23 percent of respondents would support Zaluzhnyi, compared with 20 percent for Zelensky.
