General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, has launched an attack on former army chief General Valery Zaluzhny, a rare sign of public dissent among the military leadership in Kyiv, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

“If everything is good and everything is great and everything is being done right, then why are we in this situation?” Budanov said in comments to CBC News after reporters asked him about the differences between President Volodymyr Zelenskyi and Zaluzhny.

He also noted that there is no question of personal differences between them, as one of them “was under the direct authority of the other.”

Regarding the situation in Ukraine, he also stated that “the Russians would be very happy to freeze everything as it is now” in order to achieve the recognition of “the territories they took from us as Russian”.

“And we would celebrate the victory,” said Budanov.

President Zelenskyy replaced Zaluzhny as army chief on February 8 after months of speculation and rumours. The former commander of the Ground Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, was appointed in his place.

Why Zelenskyi dismissed the ex-commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army

Differences between Zelenskyi and Zaluzhny have been arising since last spring, when Ukrainian and Western publications wrote with reference to sources in Kyiv that the general wanted to withdraw his troops from Bakhmut, which the president categorically opposed.

However, the differences between them flared up publicly only at the end of last year, after Zaluzhny hinted in an interview with The Economist in early November that Kyiv’s summer offensive had failed.

President Zelenskyi’s office immediately criticized the comments, and the Ukrainian president later said the offensive had not “deadlocked,” as the general claimed. But time will show that Zaluzhny was right.

“The problem is that we see everything the enemy does, and they see everything we do. To get out of this impasse, we need something new,” Zaluzhny argued, stressing the need for a “technological leap” in equipping his army to advance.

According to Ukrainian sources, his comments would convince Zelenskyi to fire him, as the leader in Kyiv believes that they are capable of undermining the West’s confidence in Ukraine’s ability to defeat the Russian army and, by implication, military aid to Kyiv.

The key statements he made during his address to the nation on Wednesday can be found HERE.