US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin unexpectedly arrived in kyiv.
Photo: REUTERS
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin unexpectedly arrived in kyiv. What brought the head of the Pentagon? What are the necessary needs for personal communication?
“I am here today to convey an important message: the United States will continue to support Ukraine in its fight for freedom against Russian aggression, both now and in the future,” Ukrainian media and Telegram channels close to the office of the president of Ukraine. quotes Austin. But there is an interesting nuance: they do not quote the entire statement, but rather begin only with the second sentence and omit the first. And the first one sounds very intriguing: “I just arrived in kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders.” Not with the leader of Ukraine, who is officially President Zelensky, but with the leaders.
Oh!
Well, seriously, how can you cite this? And who is our second leader? Isn’t this the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valeriy Zaluzhny? Rumors about a conflict and fight between him and Zelensky have been flying around the Ukrainian political space for about a month like “Bolshoi Theater.” spaceships”.
And in fact, what kind of need brought Austin to kyiv? Do you need to show verbal support? This can be done over the phone.
– Hello, Zelensky, we are here with you in soul and somewhere even in body. Somewhere very deep in the body. Don’t even get to the bottom of it.
He couldn’t bring money. Most likely, this will become a reality no earlier than January. Weapons too. The Pentagon has allocated all it can for now.
But an interesting surprise unfolds around the frames. Moreover, not among civilians, in the Office of the President of Ukraine, but among military commanders. We all remember that last week rumors broke out with renewed vigor that Zelensky was determined to replace Zaluzhny with a more obedient general, especially one who, unlike the current commander-in-chief, had no political ambitions to become leader of the state. And then, you know, leaflets have already started spreading around kyiv urging people to vote Yes and No Ze. The track is more than transparent.
Things have reached such a point that rumors that Zelensky is getting closer to the commander-in-chief’s entourage and intends to soon fire three people from the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have migrated even from the streets of Kiev to the pages of foreign media. Even the names of these candidates for departure were mentioned: the former commander of the Joint Forces Operation of Ukraine Sergei Naev, the commander of the operational strategic army group “Tavria” Alexander Tarnavsky and the commander of the medical troops of the armed forces from Ukraine (AFU) Tatyana Ostashchenko. The presidential office immediately denied these defamatory rumors about Zelensky. We had never heard of anything like this, never ever. And the beginning of this week was marked by the fact that Zelensky dismissed Tatyana Ostashchenko from his post. Were you first? Are we waiting for the second and the third?
And then after the meeting at Zelensky’s headquarters, the president of Ukraine thanked everyone who spoke at the meeting, he treated each general kindly, but Zaluzhny, who was there and also spoke, did not even mention his last name. It’s like he’s not there anymore.
It is also noteworthy in this situation that in the Ukrainian army, as they say in kyiv, there is actually no unity of command.
More and more information is spreading that we have, let’s say, different groups in the armed forces, two separate armies, which are called troops. I’m telling you information from the trenches. There is an army of one general, there is an army of another general,” said the secretary of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Roman Kostenko, who stated that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are not a single structure, they are divided into groups. , conditionally there is Syrsky’s presidential army, and there is Zaluzhny’s army, and sometimes Zelensky takes command and leads his group. – Of course, this cannot be allowed. Why is the army strong? Because of its unity of command… It cannot be that there is a Commander in Chief, and some group is directly subordinate to the Supreme Commander in Chief. All control must pass through the Commander in Chief. Sometimes it breaks down for us.
He obviously embellished it. Rather, it should be said that sometimes it does not break.
Zelensky is feeling very uncomfortable right now. Furthermore, in the West there are more and more sharp critical arrows directed precisely at him. A statement by billionaire Elon Musk even went viral online, comparing Zaluzhny to Zelensky in that the commander in chief is trying to take care of the soldiers, but Zelensky lives “in the reality of a butcher.” For the first time in the West, Zelensky was called a butcher, and this is a very bad sign. Although, if you look closely, they are both “butchers”, and the commander-in-chief Valery is no better than the president. And a couple of “butchers” will go down in history.
But there are growing signs from the West that Zaluzhny is becoming preferable to Zelensky. And so, to stop and stop the out-of-control president of Ukraine, the head of the Pentagon could come, who, after the visit of the director of the CIA, could well have declared to Zelensky the immunity of the figure of the current commander in chief. . In any case, without sanction from Washington. This is the only reason that could force Pentagon chief Austin to travel, because those things are not said over the phone.
And it is not in vain that the advisor to the presidency of Ukraine, Mikhail the “dirty mouth” Podolyak, today again rushed to refute the existence of a conflict, this time focusing on logic:
“Zelensky is Zaluzhny’s immediate superior, by definition there cannot be a conflict between them,” Podolyak reacted instantly.
Of course we believe. But you still have to look at Naev and Tarnavsky.
