Ukraine admits failures in the 2023 counteroffensive amid rumors of the possible dismissal of the head of the Armed Forces

2024-02-02 11:44:58

MADRID, 2 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Ukrainian authorities have acknowledged that mistakes were made during the much-announced 2023 counteroffensive and are now betting on changing tactics, amid rumors that President Volodymyr Zelensky tried a few days ago without success to remove the commander in chief of the Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni.

“With regard to the counteroffensive. Yes, there is a certain negative aftertaste after what happened in 2023,” acknowledged the main advisor to the Presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, in an interview for Channel 24.

“There were tactical errors, military and political leaders are talking about it. It is not a problem, it is a war. It is not a small country with limited resources that is fighting against us, but Russia, a large country with a huge military complex and industrial”, has justified Zelensky’s ‘right hand’.

“They have allocated 42 percent of the federal budget to the Army,” said Podoliak, who has once again called for more support from European countries for the entire Ukrainian economy. “It is necessary to increase the supply of certain types of weapons and the issue of quantity must be resolved,” he claimed.

Podoliak has acknowledged that there is a certain “exhaustion” on some fronts of the war, such as Donetsk. “We cannot stagnate the war (…), we need to change tactics. The strategy does not change, but operational decisions must change based on the number of weapons and capabilities,” he said.

“It must be unexpected for Russia, which fights in a linear manner, accumulates reserves in one direction and constantly moves there. We must take away that, its ability to predict what Ukraine will do,” he emphasized.

These statements appear at a time when tensions have increased between Zelensky and the head of the Armed Forces. In recent days, several international media have talked about how only the intervention of other high-ranking officials persuaded the Ukrainian president not to dismiss Zaluzhni.

The disagreements between the two became publicly evident last year, when Zelensky, without naming him, reproached Zaluzhni for statements in the media about how the outcome of the war was not as expected for Ukrainian interests, as well as his supposed presidential aspirations.