This is the best summary I could come up with:

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday removed Valery Zaluzhny as the country’s military commander-in-chief — ending months of tensions between the two.

Zaluzhny, 50, gained enormous credit for spearheading the successful effort by Ukraine’s outgunned forces to halt and then reverse Russia’s initial attack launched on Feb. 24, 2022.

Alone that was a great achievement — because almost everybody, and thus [Russian President Vladimir] Putin too, expected the ZSU to fold and run away," said Austrian military analyst Tom Cooper.

The president and his top general increasingly differed over strategy and also clashed over Zaluzhny’s growing popularity, which made him a potential political threat to Zelenskyy.

Zaluzhny has pressed for a new conscription law that would increase the size of the military, but the legislation is politically fraught and Zelenskyy has taken a hands-off attitude.

Zaluzhny has also taken an increasingly grim view of the war, which clashes with Zelenskyy’s effort to show that Ukraine is making good progress as a way of ensuring Kyiv’s allies stay committed.

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Oof. This feels pretty dark.

Troubling

This reminds me of a “I heard from somebody who heard from somebody” story

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Some guy I know used to work at some pesticide company where he had a Ukrainian coworker. He had somewhat recently come to USA, can’t remember if green card or just visa.

When the war broke out, dude asked him about Zelesnky because to him he seemed like a pretty good leader. Ukrainian dude told him hell no and that he was just gonna strengthen his political power and eventually remove any opposition. He said they [politicians] are all the same in Urkaine, and that Zelensky would be no different, regardless of the war outcome. He even went on to say all the early videos of him outside in Kyiv were staged and whatnot.

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Thought it was interesting and odd hearing such an opinion, especially when Ukraine was doing much much better than initially expected. Wonder if maybe there was some truth to his statement. Removing an experienced general is sometimes a sign of trying to prevent a potential coup in the future. It’s especially off-putting in the middle of a war where his performance has been so valuable.

Totally a thing you do when things are going well.

That’s upsetting. Politicians shouldn’t be allowed to run the war room. Ask history how that has turned out.