KYIV, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's popular ex-military chief has provided new details of a rift with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, threatening to deepen a long-simmering conflict between the two wartime leaders amid new speculation around post-war elections.
General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who served as Kyiv's top commander until February 2024 and is now its ambassador to London, told the Associated Press in an interview published on Wednesday that he felt threatened by a 2022 raid by security agents and blamed Zelenskiy for a major battlefield failure.
The remarks provide fresh context to a potential rivalry that has long gripped Kyiv's political class.
Opinion polls have consistently shown Zaluzhnyi to be Zelenskiy's main challenger in any future election, although he has never voiced any ambition to run for office.
Zelenskiy, facing U.S. pressure to quickly secure a peace deal in Russia's four-year war, has signalled his readiness to hold elections when fighting ends.
His office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Zaluzhnyi's remarks on the 2022 raid. In his nightly address on Wednesday, Zelenskiy did not directly comment on the AP interview but spoke of the importance of national unity and working together to ensure Ukraine’s survival.
"Any other politics in Ukraine is absolutely unnecessary at present… Personal matters (are for) later," he said.
SECURITY RAID, MILITARY MISMANAGEMENT
Speaking in London, Zaluzhnyi described how his office was raided in September 2022 by dozens of agents from Ukraine's SBU security service, which answers to Zelenskiy.
Zaluzhnyi said he then called Zelenskiy's chief of staff with a warning that he would deploy troops to protect his command centre, having already called in reinforcements to Kyiv.
The SBU's press service told Reuters an address used by Zaluzhnyi as a covert post had been listed in an unrelated organised crime case, and that no searches were carried out.
Zaluzhnyi also pinned the failure of a much-vaunted 2023 counteroffensive on Zelenskiy, saying he did not commit the necessary resources to the campaign.
Aimed at breaking Russian defences, it ended mostly in an embarrassing string of defeats for Kyiv. Zaluzhnyi said his original plan to focus on a single axis had been overridden by Zelenskiy's order to push across much of the front line.
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Additional reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Dan Peleschuk and Gareth Jones)
