Ex-army chief says tensions with Zelensky began soon after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, with frequent clashes over military strategy.

Ukraine’s former Armed Forces chief says deep rifts with President Volodymyr Zelensky undermined Kyiv’s 2023 counteroffensive and triggered a dramatic standoff with security services – as he also revealed being approached by Paul Manafort, the ex-campaign chief of US President Donald Trump and ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Since being removed as Ukraine’s army chief in 2024 and appointed ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny has increasingly been viewed as Zelensky’s main political rival, according to the Associated Press (AP).

“Zaluzhny spoke publicly for the first time about a deep rift between himself and Zelensky in a recent interview with The Associated Press,” the introduction to the AP’s interview with Zaluzhny reads.

He said tensions began soon after Russia’s February 2022 invasion, with frequent clashes over military strategy.

“The strained relationship reached a boiling point later that year, when dozens of agents from Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service raided Zaluzhny’s office,” as per AP’s report.

Zaluzhny called the previously unreported incident an act of intimidation that risked exposing internal divisions during wartime.

He said that in mid-September 2022 – during Ukraine’s northeast counteroffensive – he returned to his Kyiv office after a tense meeting at Zelensky’s headquarters.

Hours later, agents from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrived to search the premises, with more than a dozen British officers present.

Zaluzhny believes the warrant was a pretext and says it is implausible that investigators could have mistakenly targeted Ukraine’s main wartime command center.

Responding to questions from Ukrainska Pravda about remarks made by Zaluzhny in an interview with the AP, the SBU confirmed that its officers did visit one of Zaluzhny’s undercover command posts in 2022.

However, the agency stressed that no searches were conducted. It said that at the time, SBU investigators were carrying out actions under a separate criminal case focused on combating organized crime, involving a large number of addresses.

One of those addresses, the SBU said, happened to coincide with a reserve covert command post used by Zaluzhny.

“In fact, no searches or investigative actions were carried out by the SBU at this location. Moreover, Vasyl Maliuk and Valerii Zaluzhny discussed the matter immediately and directly, and the situation was clarified,” the SBU added.

Zaluzhny told AP that while the early crisis passed, his disagreements with Zelensky over military strategy continued throughout the war.

“A dispute over a counteroffensive in 2023 that ultimately failed was particularly contentious, the former general said,” the AP wrote.

The operation drew criticism from military experts for being overly ambitious and launched too late, allowing Russian forces time to fortify their defenses.

“Zaluzhny says the plan he had crafted with help from NATO partners failed because Zelensky and other officials wouldn’t commit the resources it required,” AP said.

Zaluzhny’s original strategy called for concentrating forces into a “single fist” to retake parts of the Zaporizhzhia region and push south toward the Sea of Azov – cutting Russia’s land corridor to Crimea. Instead, he said, troops were spread too thin, weakening the offensive.

Two Western defense officials told AP they corroborated Zaluzhny’s account.

Despite strong public support following earlier battlefield successes, Zaluzhny was dismissed as army chief in February 2024 and later appointed ambassador to the UK – a move analysts told AP was widely seen as an attempt to sideline a potential political rival.

The AP also reported that Zaluzhny’s office at Ukraine’s embassy in London reflects his years as a general, with walls decorated with military aircraft posters, awarded medals, and children’s drawings of battle scenes. Toy drones sit on a mahogany table.

“Behind his desk, screens show real-time feeds from drones flying over the battlefield of eastern Ukraine,” the AP report reads.

Kyiv Post experts questioned how this could be possible, adding that access to live drone feeds is typically available for active military personnel in Ukraine, who view such broadcasts through specialized software protected by complex access codes.

Zaluzhny’s main criticisms of Ukraine’s war strategy center on what he sees as unrealistic troop requirements and poor organization in developing and deploying new battlefield technologies.

He said he closely follows events but has not been involved in military decision-making since being removed by Zelensky.

He told AP that he and Zelensky had “absolutely friendly” conversations during the two times they have met since then.

Some analysts say Zaluzhny’s absence from day-to-day politics could erode his public support. Still, an Ipsos poll published last month showed him leading Zelensky in a hypothetical election, with 23% support versus the president’s 20%.

Despite his reluctance to enter politics, AP reported that campaign consultants and political insiders continue to approach Zaluzhny.

He said a “fairly well-known” American political consultant contacted him in spring 2025:

“I thanked him for paying attention to me, but said that I did not need his services.”

A source close to Zaluzhny told AP it was Manafort, who previously led Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and was later convicted for crimes including covert lobbying for Yanukovych, Ukraine’s former pro-Russian president.

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