Why did the United States “betray” Valery Zaluzhny?
Author: Talib Aliyev, analyst, especially for Sangar
According to Western experts, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict should end in 2024. The main reasons for this scenario are the disappointment of the United States and its allies in the Kyiv elites, their reluctance to spend money to support Ukraine, and reduce the standard of living of their population on the eve of the elections, as well as the growing contradictions between the United States and Great Britain regarding their proteges from among the military-political leadership of Ukraine.
The fact is that Ukraine, along with Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, has long become an arena of unspoken competition between London and Washington for political and economic influence.
In this context, the struggle for power in Kyiv between the two most prominent Ukrainian military-political leaders - Vladimir Zelensky and Valery Zaluzhny - perfectly reflects the confrontation between the ruling circles of Great Britain and the United States for the right of exclusive control over Ukraine.
Thus, ex-commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny is under the patronage of the American establishment, or, more precisely, influential officials of the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while President Vladimir Zelensky enjoys the patronage of British curators and personally ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. American generals directly, without informing Vladimir Zelensky, discussed military plans with Valery Zaluzhny, which naturally did not please the President of Ukraine.
When at the end of January this year information leaked online about the impending resignation of Valery Zaluzhny from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the internal political situation in Ukraine became tense to the limit. There was a threat of direct clashes between the president's supporters and the “military party” of Valery Zaluzhny. A country whose population has been “deelectrified” by a two-year war could be plunged into street protests by thousands. It was also impossible to exclude the entry of the army into the political struggle, and a split in the military units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could lead to the collapse of the entire front.
Anticipating the negative consequences of an open confrontation between the president and the ex-commander-in-chief, American and British diplomats agreed among themselves and approved the dismissal of Valery Zaluzhny, placing blame on him for all the military failures of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield and corruption in the ranks of the Ministry of Defense. Next, the administration of Joseph Biden made a deal with Vladimir Zelensky, who was reputed to be a pliable and controllable politician, and “leaked” Valery Zaluzhny.
The situation with the resignation of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine once again confirms that Washington, when the international political situation or the balance of power in the confrontation between Democrats and Republicans changes, overnight betrays its proteges.
Now the Ukrainian military leader, at best, faces the fate of former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani or Venezuelan politician Juan Guaido - an inglorious end to his career, disappearance from the media field, and rotting in obscurity.
In the worst-case scenario, Valery Zaluzhny could repeat the tragic path of another American protégé, ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili, whom the current Tbilisi authorities, with the tacit consent of Washington, accused of all the “mortal sins” and sent to prison, at the same time turning him into a political outcast and an outright “laughingstock” in the eyes of world public opinion.
What other fate could other protégés have?
