Zaluzhny Steps onto the Field of ‘Soft Criticism’ of Zelensky

Zaluzhny’s First Public Entry into the National Information Space. It came in the form of a publicistic article on military affairs.

The chosen platform was Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, a media outlet widely regarded as critical of the government.

The goal was to cement the image of a professional military innovator, offering measured and non-personalized criticism of the current authorities — with carefully placed hints and emphases.

The former Commander-in-Chief stated that the Kursk operation had failed to deliver operational success. He deliberately highlighted its high cost: “I do not know the exact price of such actions, but it is clear that it was far too high.” For President Zelensky, however, the Kursk operation became a tool to stabilize declining trust and even sparked a rise in support.

Zaluzhny also sought to explain the failure of the 2023 counteroffensive, pointing to the absence of decisive superiority in forces and resources: “Unfortunately, for both objective and subjective reasons, we were no longer able to establish such superiority before the offensive itself.” The key word here is “subjective.” What exactly did Zaluzhny mean by that?

Another message, aimed at certain figures: according to Zaluzhny, the counteroffensive was turned into a reality show, where its progress was commented on by “all sorts of prophets and clairvoyants, who later ended up under sanctions or on wanted lists.” Was this, perhaps, a veiled reference to Arestovych?

Valerii Zaluzhny’s Article in Dzerkalo Tyzhnia