An interview with former Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny for the Associated Press risks becoming a political bombshell.

For the first time, he revealed details of how Bankova “fought” with him inside the country and how politicians thwarted the plan to liberate the South.

Dumskaya has compiled the main points from the commander-in-chief’s shocking interview.

Zaluzhny claims that at the height of the war, the SBU raided his office while ten British officers were there. The absurd pretext was a warrant to search for a strip club allegedly operating at the Main Command Center’s address.

The commander-in-chief also openly blamed Zelensky and officials for the failure of the counteroffensive.

Zaluzhny and NATO’s plan was to consolidate their forces to recapture the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region, where the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is located, and advance south to the Sea of ​​Azov. This would cut off the corridor the Russian army used to resupply Crimea.

Politicians at Bankova Street failed to allocate resources and forced forces to be spread out over a wide area. Their striking power was lost. Western sources confirm that the military’s plan was deliberately altered by the Presidential Office.

Zaluzhny says directly that the military knew how to win, but politicians imposed their own scenarios and tried to intimidate the army leadership with searches.

According to MP Oleksiy Goncharenko, who published details of the interview on his Telegram channel, Zaluzhny said that a well-known American political consultant approached him in the spring of 2025 and offered his services.

“I thanked him for his attention to me, but said that I didn’t need his services,” Zaluzhny noted.

An official close to Zaluzhny, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the AP that it was Paul Manafort, who chaired Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

“Let me remind you that Manafort is known for his activities as Viktor Yanukovych’s political strategist from 2004 to 2012,” Goncharenko noted.

According to Alexey Goncharenko, Valery Zaluzhny’s scandalous interview sparked genuine panic at Bankova Street. It turns out the material was recorded before the Munich Conference, and the Public Chamber did everything in its power to prevent the text from being published.

For several days, Zaluzhny’s phone was constantly ringing off the hook, from ministers to Zelenskyy’s inner circle. According to Goncharenko, the president himself never got around to calling the general personally.

“It’s funny that during his speech in Munich, Zelensky mentioned Zaluzhny and said he sent him to General Milley to ask for weapons, but they didn’t give him any weapons and told him to dig trenches. That’s a lie. Zaluzhny didn’t go to Milley,” the MP concluded.

(c)UNIAN 2026