A Ukrainian MP has launched a scathing attack on Ukraine’s military leadership, making a number of accusations and calling for a change in the country’s top brass.
Mariana Bezuhla, a Member of Parliament from Zelensky's own Servant of the People party and a member of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence demanded the country’s military leadership “must leave” as it has failed to present any comprehensive “war plan” for 2024, and had left budget planning in disarray.
“What's the plan for the war? Why make new brigades instead of strengthening the existing ones? How much will it cost to create a new brigade? And what about funds for things like rotation, demobilization, and training?” she wrote on her Facebook page on Sunday, Nov. 26.
In addition, she slammed the military leadership for only proposing an increased mobilization without substantive organizational changes to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
“Now the situation is such that if the military leadership cannot provide any plan for 2024, and all their proposals for mobilization boil down to the fact that more people are needed. Without any proposal to change the AFU system, then such leadership should leave,” the MP said.
Following her initial statement, Bezuhla continued her criticisms on Monday, specifically targeting head of the armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny.
She accused him of arguing about border landmines with General Mark Milli, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, in 2021 and dismissing the need for drones during a committee hearing.
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She not only targeted Zaluzhny but also slammed the former Defense Minister, Oleksiy Reznikov for blindly approving military proposals without evaluating how well they work.
Following on from these statements, Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda sought clarification from the spokesperson of the Servant of the People party on whether Bezuhla's statements represented the faction’s official stance.
The party's spokesperson, Yulia Paliychuk, said: “Ask Bezuhla. She is her own press service and is responsible for her own words.”
Following the deputy's statements, colleagues in parliament sought to remove Bezuhla from a position as head of a subcommittee within the National Security, Defense, and Intelligence Committee. People's Deputy Iryna Friz, a member of former president Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party, political rivals of Servant of the People, reported on Facebook that the committee will address this issue on Tuesday.
“These posts, which sow seeds of discord in society and erode confidence in the military leadership during a state of martial law, prompted our party to propose her removal from the subcommittee's leadership,” Friz stated.
She stressed the need to preserve military credibility in times of war, urging politicians to refrain from publicly discrediting the armed forces.
Since the large-scale invasion began, Russia has been pushing a narrative claiming there was conflict between Ukraine's political and military leadership. This misinformation is sometimes reinforced by internal groups within Ukraine.
On Nov. 7, lawmaker Volodymyr Aryev from Poroshenko's party first stated that the Defense Minsiter had submitted a request to dismiss the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. However, he later deleted this message and issued a denial.
Russian propaganda and some Ukrainian sources then readily promulgated the message along with a deepfake post about Zaluzhny on the Russian Telegram channel Radio Trukha on the same day.
The faked video suggested that Zelensky had eliminated Zaluzhny’s assistant, and then would kill him too, before handing Ukraine over to Putin. It accused Zelensky of causing failure of the counteroffensive. Ukrainians were urged to go to the Maidan to protest, while it called upon the military to abandon their positions and march on Kyiv.
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Comments (6)
Idiot zelensky is an immigrant hence implanted in Ukraine by western colonizers. For him his greed/ambition is more important than well being of ethnic ukranians. He will never agree to end the conflict with Russia.
@A, Do you think the greedy Schlomo's attention has ever been good?
Both employees of Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin's "Patriot" troll center at 55 Savushkina Street in Saint Petersburg, russia.
You want peace YET blame Ukrainian nationalism? Then russia should withdraw ALL forces from ALL Ukrainian land...then there will be peace.
Mariana Bezuhla=communist russian subversive.
Now is not the time for this nonsense. Revealing war plans is idiotic.
General Valery Zaluzhny has proven himself AND the armed forces of UA under great stress.
Instead, Bezuhla MUST go...to the kremlin.
Mariana Bezuhla has zero military knowledge and experience. Zaluzhny Is clearly one of the best military leaders on the planet, and has correctly evaluated further success is dependent on application of new technology in specific areas upset the current military parity achieved in spite of disadvantages in numerical strength and equipment.
There is no point shooting the messenger.
Solidarity and unity wins wars
Bezuhla seems to be very intelligent and her analysis sound realistic. I would like to see a pathway to peace, because i am so fed up of ukrainian nationalism which wants to push whole Europe into war with Russia. Sorry, this is absolutely not my war. Please make peace and stop daily killing of so many people on both sides. Maybe Ukraina destroys the neoliberal imperialism of European Union which is not the promised peace union that brings all people wealth but now EU is more likely a war union which makes the people poor and the elites rich. The destruction of EU would be a nice side affect of this stupid war. Maybe some day we see real democracy for all people, not only the rich ones!
@M, sounds good. I see it the same way, greetings from Germany.
@M, same here in the North of England... we see Zelensky as a tool of the US/UK/EU/NATO/military industrial complex just like Stoltenberg, Van Der Leuyen. They're currently re-building the Germany forces in a way not seen since Hitler, with a view, I believe, to encourage conflict in that region again. Will we ever learn...?