Zaluzhnyi refused Yermak and did not join Zelenskyy’s team, - Guardian
According to The Guardian, the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak, visited the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and now Ukraine's Ambassador to the UK, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, in London and offered to join President Zelenskyy's team in the upcoming elections.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to UP.
"There are no elections planned in Ukraine, and voting is legally and technically impossible while the country is at war... But everyone in Ukraine knows that sooner or later politics will return. And when it does, polls show that Zaluzhnyi, who led the successful repulsion of the Russian offensive at the beginning of the war, is the only candidate who would pose a serious threat to Zelenskyy," The Guardian writes.
The newspaper notes that Zaluzhnyi has never publicly declared any political ambitions and rejects almost all interview requests. "His team is carefully planning his public appearances in London to avoid events where uncomfortable questions could be asked," the publication says.
At the same time, according to The Guardian, "political pilgrims" are constantly coming to the Ukrainian embassy in London to offer services, express support, or try to guess whether Zaluzhnyi plans to run for election. The newspaper also notes that in addition to Ukrainian MPs, civic activists, and business representatives, Zaluzhnyi was visited by Donald Trump's former adviser Paul Manafort, who visited him to offer his services as a political consultant in any future election campaign. The Guardian writes that Zaluzhnyi declined the offer.
According to the newspaper, one of Zaluzhnyi's "guests" was the head of the OP Andrii Yermak. According to The Guardian's source, at a meeting last November, Yermak invited Zaluzhny to officially join the president's political team to present a united front before the upcoming elections. However, Zaluzhnyi declined the offer.
At the same time, according to the newspaper's sources, he promised Yermak that he would not criticise Zelenskyy in public while the war was ongoing, and assured him that he would not give the Presidential Administration any unpleasant surprises. "If I decide that I want to go into politics, you will hear it from me first, privately," Zaluzhnyi told Yermak.
