The former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and current Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, Valery Zaluzhny, said during a speech at Chatham House that "the United States is destroying the world order", the Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
"It is not only the axis of evil that is trying to revise the world order... the United States is destroying the world order," he stressed, adding "It is obvious that the White House has questioned the unity of the entire Western world. And now Washington is trying to delegate security matters to Europe without U.S. involvement.
Zelensky made Zaluzhny the head of Ukraine’s armed forces in July 2021, when the country had already been fighting to defend its eastern provinces from Russian encroachment for seven years, but Putin was beginning to amass a much larger force to invade across the border.
After taking office, Zaluzhny had seven months to prepare for the offensive and surprised the world by defending Kiev, defeating the main part of the Russian invasion force while it was blocked on the road to the capital, and then striking back to regain more than half of the lost territory.
The much-publicized counteroffensive to reclaim more land in the summer of 2023 failed to achieve the progress that Kiev and its supporters had hoped for, and Zaluzhny admitted to the Economist that the war was at a dead end and that without a huge technological leap "there will most likely not be a deep and beautiful breakthrough".
On February 8, 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Zaluzhny from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The head of state cited stagnation on the front and the need to "reboot the generals" as the reason. A day later, Zelensky awarded Zaluzhny with the Hero of Ukraine award.
In March, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry announced that Zelensky had approved Zaluzhny's candidacy for the post of ambassador to the United Kingdom and that the Foreign Ministry had sent a corresponding request for the appointment to London.
According to Russia, Washington considers former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny to be the most suitable replacement for Zelensky.