Former Ukrainian commander-in-chief recounts 2022 raid of his HQs by security officers

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Kingdom and former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, has for the first time spoken about tensions with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, particularly the strain that arose in September 2022 when officers of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) forced their way into a temporary military command post in Kyiv to conduct searches.

Source: Zaluzhnyi in an interview with the Associated Press

Quote: "Zaluzhnyi, 52, refuses to discuss his political ambitions, saying he doesn't want to risk harming national unity during a war with Russia that is approaching its fourth anniversary. Yet in a sign of his possible desire to run for the presidency – after the war is over – Zaluzhnyi spoke publicly for the first time about a deep rift between himself and Zelenskyy in a recent interview with The Associated Press."

Details: The AP notes that, according to Zaluzhnyi, tensions emerged shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and that disputes often flared between the two men over how best to defend the country.

Tensions between them peaked later that year when dozens of SSU agents raided Zaluzhnyi's office, he told the AP. He said the previously unreported incident was an act of intimidation and risked exposing internal rivalries at a time when national unity was vital.

Zaluzhnyi said that during the 2022 raid, he called Andrii Yermak, then head of the President's Office, and warned that he was prepared to deploy the military to stop the searches and protect the command centre: "I will fight with you and have already called in reinforcements to the centre of Kyiv for support".

AP writes that one evening in mid-September 2022, when Ukraine was conducting an effective counteroffensive in the northeast, Zaluzhnyi left a tense meeting at Zelenskyy's headquarters and headed to the temporary General Staff command post in Kyiv.

A few hours later, dozens of SSU agents arrived at his office to conduct a search, he said. According to Zaluzhnyi, more than a dozen UK officers were present there at the time.

Zaluzhnyi said that the Ukrainian agents had not explained what they were looking for, and he had refused to let them review documents or computers.

In the presence of the agents, he called Yermak and issued a stern warning: "I told Yermak that I would repel this attack, because I know how to fight."

He then called Vasyl Maliuk, who was head of the SSU at the time, to find out what was happening. According to Zaluzhnyi, Maliuk said he knew nothing about the raid and promised to investigate.

He later learned that two days earlier, Maliuk's service had requested a search warrant from a Kyiv district court for the same address. Court documents obtained by the AP show that the service intended to search a strip club allegedly run by a criminal organisation.

However, two employees at the new office said the strip club mentioned in the documents had closed before Russia's full-scale invasion began.

Zaluzhnyi believes the search warrant was a pretext and that the service could not have mistaken the location of the country's main military command centre.

The AP notes that the Office of the President and the SSU declined to comment. The agency says it could not independently verify Zaluzhnyi's account of the raid.

Although the early-war crisis had passed, disagreements between Zaluzhnyi and Zelenskyy over how to defend the country continued, the former commander-in-chief said, adding that he often questioned the president's military strategy.

Background:

• Valerii Zaluzhnyi headed the Armed Forces of Ukraine from 27 July 2021 to 8 February 2024.
• Since the full-scale invasion began, Zaluzhnyi has given only a handful of interviews, just one to Ukrainian media, and one briefing on mobilisation.

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