The Ukrainian government has notified the White House of its intention to fire the head of the army, General Valery Zaluzhny, two well-informed sources told Reuters on Friday.

Zelensky and Zaluzhny at a meeting in Dnipro, July 2023Photo: Pool / Presidency of Ukraine / Zuma Press / Profimedia

The decision to release General Valery Zaluzhny, who quarreled with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi over military strategy and other issues, was made after Ukraine’s counteroffensive last year, which failed to recapture large parts of the territory seized from Russia due to aggression, News.ro notes.

A source close to Zelenskyi’s office said they also disagree on a new military mobilization campaign, with the president opposing Zaluzhnyi’s proposal to call up 500,000 new soldiers.

At the same time, the source added that the process of removing Zaluzhny from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is currently suspended while officials consider who should replace him.

A second well-informed source said the White House has not expressed a position one way or the other on a plan to replace Zaluzhny.

“I would like to emphasize that the White House’s response was that we neither supported nor objected to their sovereign decision,” the source said. “The White House conveyed that Ukraine makes its own sovereign decisions regarding its personnel,” the source insisted.

The Washington Post was the first to report that Ukraine had notified the White House of a plan to remove Zaluzhny.

American officials have conveyed to Ukraine that they are not opposed to Zaluzhnyi’s release, a source close to the office of the President of Ukraine said. “The US agrees that Ukraine should release him,” the source said.

There were no details on the terms of the plan’s implementation. “Right now, both sides (the president and the general) have taken a break to determine what the future holds and the status quo will remain until further notice,” the source said.