{"id":2191,"date":"2025-08-25T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T16:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/?p=2191"},"modified":"2025-08-29T13:48:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T13:48:30","slug":"ex-ukrainian-commander-biding-time-to-challenge-zelensky-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/25\/ex-ukrainian-commander-biding-time-to-challenge-zelensky-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Ukrainian commander \u2018biding time\u2019 to challenge Zelensky \u2013 Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent poll shows that Valery Zaluzhny, currently Kiev\u2019s ambassador to London, is more popular than Vladimir Zelensky<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an \u201cincreasing belief\u201d<\/em> in Kiev that former commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, is preparing to go head-to-head with Vladimir Zelensky in a potential presidential race, The Guardian has claimed.<\/p>\n

Amid growing tensions, Ukrainian leader Zelensky removed the general from his post in February 2024 and dispatched him to the UK to serve as Kiev\u2019s ambassador.<\/p>\n

In an article on Monday, The Guardian claimed that while Zaluzhny has painstakingly concealed any political ambition he may have, \u201cmany assume he is just biding his time before entering the fray.\u201d<\/em> The British newspaper cited the general-turned-envoy\u2019s supposed musings as to how he would present himself to Ukrainian voters and what platform he would run on, should he decide to vie for the presidency.<\/p>\n

The outlet further stated that Zaluzhny has been receiving a steady flow of Ukrainian and Western dignitaries at both the embassy in London and in Kiev earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The Guardian also quoted anonymous sources as saying that in March, following the infamous showdown between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House, Vice President J.D. Vance secretly reached out to Zaluzhny, in an apparent attempt to sound him out as a potential alternative leader. He reportedly turned down Vance\u2019s overtures.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Ukrainian
Western and Ukrainian officials held \u2018secret meeting\u2019 on ousting Zelensky \u2013 Russian intel<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Last week, freelance journalist Katie Livingstone claimed that Zaluzhny was \u201cquietly preparing a run for president \u2013 in direct opposition to Zelensky.\u201d<\/em> She quoted an unnamed source as suggesting that his team had \u201ceffectively begun\u201d<\/em> an unofficial PR campaign.<\/p>\n

Zaluzhny\u2019s press representative was quick to deny the speculation.<\/p>\n

A survey of 1,000 people in Ukraine conducted July 4-5 by \u2018Rating\u2019 indicated that the former commander-in-chief was trusted by 73% of respondents. That would put him in first place among political figures in the country, with Zelensky trailing six percentage points behind, the poll suggested.<\/p>\n

Another survey by a different pollster in late June showed that 41% of Ukrainians believed the country was drifting toward authoritarianism.<\/p>\n

Zelensky\u2019s presidential term expired in May 2024, but he has refused to hold new elections, citing martial law. The Kremlin insists that the Ukrainian leader has lost legitimacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent poll shows that Valery Zaluzhny, currently Kiev\u2019s ambassador to London, is more popular than Vladimir Zelensky There is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2191"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2194,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2191\/revisions\/2194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.youtubexyoutube.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}