ISW explains why Russia is stirring up tensions between Ukraine's leadership

This was reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The ISW report states that Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Director Sergei Naryshkin baselessly claimed that high-ranking Western officials are discussing replacing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with another senior Ukrainian military or political official.

According to ISW analysts, with such statements, Russian sources are trying to discredit the Ukrainian leadership and weaken Western support for Ukraine.

• On November 1, The Economist published a column by Valerii Zaluzhnyi for the first time since December 2022.
• Zaluzhnyi noted that Russia's war against Ukraine could move to a new dangerous stage and named priority areas that could help prevent this. He also described what is needed to break the deadlock in the war with Russia.
• Later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded to Zaluzhnyi's article and said that Ukraine was not in a stalemate.
• Also, Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, commenting on the article by the Chief Commander of Ukraine's Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi in The Economist, said during the telethon that the military should not make public what is happening at the front.
• ISW analyzed Zaluzhnyi's article on positional warfare in Ukraine.
• Later, the NYT article noted that Zelenskyy's accusations against Zaluzhnyi indicate a split in the Ukrainian leadership.
• On November 7, Russian media launched a diplomatic fake with the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine's Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who allegedly called for a coup d'état. At the beginning of the full-scale war, Russia launched similar diplomatic fakes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.