Former chief of army details rift with Zelensky

Ever since he was ousted as the head of Ukraine's army in 2024 and appointed as the country’s ambassador to Britain, Valerii Zaluzhnyi has widely been seen as the top political rival to President Volodymyr Zelensky.

- By Samya KULLAB AND SUSIE BLANN

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 him and Zelensky in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

Tensions emerged soon after Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, and tempers often flared between the two men over how best to defend the country, Zaluzhnyi said. The strained relationship reached a boiling point later that year, when dozens of agents from Ukraine’s domestic intelligence service raided Zaluzhnyi's office, he told the AP.

Zaluzhnyi alleges that the previously unreported incident was an act of intimidation.

Ukraine's security service, known as the SBU, said that no search was ever carried out at Zaluzhnyi's office, though it acknowledged that the address was part of an investigation unrelated to him. Zelensky’s office declined to comment for this article. The AP could not independently confirm Zaluzhnyi’s account of the raid.

The revelation threatens to polarize public opinion in Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. Russian forces are making slow, steady gains across Ukraine's eastern front, and both sides are clinging to incompatible demands as the U.S. presses them to reach a peace deal.