Ukraine Official Accuses Zelensky of Lying About the War

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of lying about how Ukraine is faring in its ongoing war with Russia.

Klitschko said during a recent interview with Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten that he agreed with the assessment of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Ukrainian military's commander-in-chief, who said during an interview with The Economist last month that the conflict had gone "into a stalemate."

Zelensky rejected Zaluzhnyi's assessment days after his remarks were published, saying during a press conference on November 4 that the war was anything but "a stalemate" and accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of treating his troops "like meat" and allowing them to be slaughtered.

Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing champion before entering politics, said during his 20 Minuten interview that Zelensky had been "euphorically" lying about Ukraine's standing in the war while praising Zaluzhnyi for telling "the truth."

"[Zaluzhnyi] told the truth," Klitschko said. "Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth...Of course, we can euphorically lie to our people and our partners. But you can't do that forever. Some of our politicians have criticized Zaluzhnyi for the clear words—wrongly. I stand behind him."

The Kyiv mayor went on to say that Zelensky's popularity had recently been declining as payback for "mistakes he made" during the war, arguing that "people see who is effective and who is not."

"The president has an important function today and we have to support him until the end of the war," said Klitschko. "But at the end of this war, every politician will pay for his successes or failures."

Newsweek reached out for comment to Zelensky's office via email on Monday.

While Klitschko has generally supported and agreed with Zelensky for the bulk of the war, speculation about a rift between the Ukrainian president and Zaluzhnyi has been mounting following their disagreement on the state of the conflict.

During U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's visit to Kyiv last month, there was rampant speculation among Ukrainian officials that Zelensky was mulling over the idea of firing and replacing Zaluzhnyi, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

The outlet also reported that Zelensky may have been avoiding contact with "bad" commanders who are loyal to Zaluzhnyi in his recent communications with the military.

Zaluzhnyi warned last month that the war could "drag on for years and wear down the Ukrainian state." He said that there would be "no deep and beautiful breakthrough" unless Ukraine comes up with a major technological advance akin to the invention of gunpowder.

"The simple fact is that we see everything the enemy is doing and they see everything we are doing," Zaluzhnyi said. "For us to break this deadlock we need something new, like the gunpowder which the Chinese invented and which we are still using to kill each other."