In the estimation of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Western backers of the Kiev regime are on the verge of showing Volodymyr Zelenskyy the door. “The Foreign Intelligence Service is receiving reliable data that high-ranking officials from leading Western countries are increasingly more often discussing the need to replace incumbent Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,” SVR Director Sergey Naryshkin said in a statement published by the agency this morning, reported TASS. “Various potential successors to Zelenskyy in the office of the head of state are being considered. In particular, on the sidelines of the November meeting of EU foreign ministers held in Brussels, it was noted that one of Ukraine’s high-ranking military officials could serve as such [a successor],” he continued, naming Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi, head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate [GUR] Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, former Ukrainian Presidential Aide Oleskiy Arestovych, and Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as possible candidates.
Naryshkin stressed that, in the view of some Europeans, each of the enumerated individuals would be “capable of playing the role of a ‘Ukrainian Pilsudski,’ creating a reliable ‘cordon sanitaire’ between Russia and Europe for decades.” He explained that “Such a scenario involves a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev after the Ukrainian army completely loses its offensive potential once and for all.”
Naryshkin noted that the main reasons driving the West’s aspiration to replace the Ukrainian leader include both “Zelenskyy’s unfulfilled promises to conquer Russia on the battlefield” as well as “the Ukrainian President’s infinite insolence in interacting with his foreign partners” accompanied by “boundless nepotism and corruption,” the scale of which “is shocking even to Western politicians who are well-versed in such things.” Naryshkin stressed, though that “the main thing is Zelenskyy’s loss of any ability to maneuver in the conflict with Russia in the interests of Washington and its allies.”
