KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday dismissed suggestions of a rift with army chief Valery Zaluzhny but said he still wants to see "very concrete things" from the military leadership.
His remarks come amid weeks of public speculation about tensions between the two men after Kyiv's vaunted counteroffensive failed to retake significant parts of Russian-occupied territory.
"Why should I help someone by developing this theme? I have a working relationship with Zaluzhny," Zelenskiy said during a televised press conference in Kyiv.
He described the military operation as a "very complicated story" involving the collective input of Ukraine's military leadership.
Zaluzhny wrote in The Economist last month that the 21-month-old war with Russia had reached a stalemate, drawing a rebuke from the president's office.
The idea of a battlefield stalemate is highly sensitive in Ukraine, where officials are opposed to any negotiations with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin until his troops fully withdraw.
Zelenskiy avoided directly criticising Zaluzhny, but also did not explicitly extend his full support for the top general.
"I am waiting for very concrete things on the battlefield," he said of Ukraine's General Staff. "The strategy is clear - we have an understanding of our actions. I want to see details. I think that's fair."
Zelenskiy also said the military had asked for an additional 450,000 to 500,000 people to be mobilised into the army, but that a final decision had not been taken.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Dan Peleschuk; editing by Christina Fincher and Josie Kao)
