Political turmoil rises in Ukraine

Opposition leader blocked from trip

KHERSON, Ukraine — As Ukraine steps up efforts to press for more military support for its conflict with Russia, political frictions have emerged at a critical moment for the country.

President Volodymyr Zelensky and the commander of Ukrainian forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, have been at odds. Vitali Klitschko, the popular mayor of Kyiv, has suggested that Zelensky made mistakes in failing to prepare for the war. And the opposition leader, Petro Poroshenko, was on Friday blocked by authorities from leaving for a trip abroad that he said was aimed at lobbying for more military support.

The political frictions in Ukraine come as the country enters its second winter of fullscale war with Russia and the public braces for more attacks on cities and infrastructure, while its troops face grinding fighting on three fronts.

A summer counteroffensive failed to produce a hoped-for breakthrough against Russian defenses on the southeastern front, and while Ukrainian troops have gained some success in the south and against Russian naval forces in the Black Sea, they are suffering sustained attacks in the east.

Zelensky was scheduled to make a direct appeal to US senators Tuesday aimed at reminding them what is at stake if they fail to quickly approve emergency military aid for his nation but pulled out of the session unexpectedly. That warning came a day after White House officials said that the United States would soon run out of money to send weapons to Ukraine.

The Senate voted Wednesday night not to advance a $111 billion national security package that would have provided about $50 billion in emergency security assistance for Ukraine, a reflection of waning Republican support for funding Kyiv’s war effort.

As the military campaign has run into difficulties, criticism has started to rise within Ukraine’s political leadership. Zaluzhny, the commander of Ukrainian forces, wrote in a paper recently that the war was in a stalemate and would stay that way unless Ukraine received increased and more technologically sophisticated military equipment. Zelensky swiftly chastised the general and denied that the war was in a stalemate.

Since then, rumors have abounded that Zaluzhny would be replaced. A member of parliament in Zelensky’s party, Mariana Bezuhla, who is a deputy chair of the Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence in parliament, has criticized Zaluzhny repeatedly on Facebook for failures in planning, even running a poll asking people to vote on his replacement.

The attacks on Zaluzhny, who is enormously popular within the armed forces, have led others to criticize the government and Zelensky’s administration, with complaints that the president interferes with military decisions and fires commanders without consulting with his military chief.

Both Klitschko and Poroshenko are political rivals of Zelensky but had largely buried their differences since the Russian invasion in February last year. But rivalries have emerged from time to time, such as when Zelensky criticized the mayor for not preparing air raid bunkers in the city sufficiently.

Personal rivalry was most likely behind Poroshenko’s travel ban, one analyst said, but in the end, Poroshenko and Zelensky agreed on the need to fight Russia and build alliances with the West.