Political disputes arise in Ukraine, which is looking for additional support from West, - NYT
At the time when Ukraine turned to Washington for emergency additional military support, tensions arose between Ukrainian politicians and leaders.
This is stated in the New York Times publication, Censor.NET reports.
The newspaper writes that the positions of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine differ. The mayor of Kyiv Vitalii Klitschko suggests that Zelenskyy made a mistake by not preparing for war. And opposition leader Petro Poroshenko was blocked by the authorities from traveling abroad, during which he was going to lobby for additional military support for Ukraine.
All this, as the NYT points out, is happening as Ukraine enters the second winter of a full-scale war with the Russian Federation, and the summer counteroffensive failed to create the expected breakthrough.
In parallel with the fact that the military campaign is facing difficulties, criticism of the political leadership of Ukraine is growing. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Zaluzhnyi spoke in the press, declaring that the war had reached a stalemate. President Zelenskyi denied this, criticizing Zaluzhny.
"Since then, there have been rumors that General Zaluzhnyi will be replaced. People's deputy from Mr. Zelenskyy's party Mariana Bezuhla, who is the deputy head of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence in the Verkhovna Rada, repeatedly criticized General Zaluzhnyi on Facebook for planning failures, and even conducted a poll asking people to vote for his replacement," the NYT writes.
The publication notes that the attacks on Zaluzhnyi caused a wave of criticism against the Zelenskyy administration. Thus, the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko expressed his support for the commander-in-chief. He stated that Zelensky made a mistake by not preparing for war.
Klitschko, the NYT writes, is a political opponent of Zelenskyy, just like Poroshenko. The director of the "Democratic Initiatives" Foundation, Petro Burkovskyi, says that, despite their personal rivalry, Zelenskyy and Poroshenko agreed to fight the Russian Federation together and build alliances with the West. "Their cooperation is inevitable," the publication quoted him as saying.
Poroshenko said that the authorities' decision not to release him from the country was a "surprise and shock" for him, but at the same time, in a video message, he called on politicians to stick together and stop personal attacks.
NYT quotes Oleksandr Garan, a professor of political science at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: "Ukraine remains a democratic state even under martial law. There are opposition channels. There are many discussions, it is very important to keep this in mind."
He called the blocking of Poroshenko's trip "a mistake by the authorities."
Poroshenko says that during his trip he was going to lobby for the provision of military support to Ukraine. He directly addressed the American members of Congress: "Please do not block the Ukrainian army. Do not block the ability of Ukrainians to defend themselves, because we are defending the entire free world, including the United States."
