The most popular man in Ukraine has become a problem for Zelenskyy

General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi is a national hero for Ukrainians after repelling the first wave of Vladimir Putin’s invasion on the outskirts of Kyiv.

But two years into the war, setbacks on the battlefield and political jealousies in the capital have soured his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. This week, the president tried — and failed — to force out his commander-in-chief, pulling back the curtain on a damaging rift at the heart of the Ukraine war effort. Their dispute helps explain the indecision over military strategy that is worrying officials in Washington and adds an unwanted element of uncertainty at a point when U.S. military aid hangs in the balance, troops are running dangerously short on ammunition and Russia is on the offensive again. Zelenskyy could just fire his general, and that may well be the end game. One senior European diplomat who speaks regularly to Zelenskyy’s team said they thought it most likely Zaluzhnyi would be dismissed and worried about the signal it would send to Ukraine’s allies. The commander met with his boss for a regular military planning discussion on Friday evening. Their dispute comes at a delicate moment for the president and ousting Zaluzhnyi would be certain to hurt morale among both troops and civilians. “If it weren’t for Zaluzhnyi, we would all be speaking Russian already,” said Yevhen, a 38-year-old soldier serving on the front lines in southern Ukraine, who asked not to have his full name cited due to security concerns. “If Zaluzhnyi is fired, there could be a riot.”

The 50-year-old general’s appeal is partly down to the deep respect for the military in a country under attack. But Ukrainians also like the way he’s stayed focused on his job rather than building a public profile. And they love his disdain for the country’s old Soviet ways. When Zaluzhnyi was appointed in July 2021, he became the first modern army chief to have been trained in independent Ukraine rather than Soviet academies and he has championed a new generation of officers.

“This new breed will completely change the army in five years — almost everyone knows a foreign language well, works well with sophisticated kit and is well read,” he said in a 2020 interview with ArmyInform, a military news website. “We want to move away from maps and from writing battle plans like it was 1943.”