Following recent ouster of Ukrainian army chief General Valery Zaluzhny and massive reshuffle in the military leadership, serious discontent is brewing among elite units, with discussions of ousting President Volodymyr Zelensky and reinstating Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief, a source has revealed to Sputnik.
According to report, commanders and soldiers in elite units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are dissatisfied with the reshuffle in the country’s military leadership and are seriously discussing the ousting of Volodymyr Zelensky, a representative of the Russian security services said.
He explained that specialists had gained access to a closed Telegram channel called “ParaBelum”, which consists of radically-minded fighters from the elite units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“Our specialists have gained access to a resource in which members of various elite units, such as the Marines, special forces, intelligence, special forces of the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine], as well as various nationalist battalions, communicate. They are highly qualified specialists who are clearly dissatisfied with the change of command. They are seriously discussing options for overthrowing the current government and the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”, the interlocutor said.
Based on the materials at the disposal of Sputnik, the soldiers express dissatisfaction with the actions of Zelensky and the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrsky, who was appointed a month ago to replace Valery Zaluzhny. Thus, the commander of the reconnaissance group of Ukraine’s 80th Separate Air Assault Nrigade, Maxim Shevtsov, with the call sign “Winter”, calls on members of “ParaBelum” to overthrow Zelensky.
“If people don’t come to the defense of Zaluzhny, if the military doesn’t come to the defense of Zaluzhny, then this rat [Zelensky] will torpedo everyone… Let’s demolish this green rat and install Zaluzhny! In fact, it’s Zelensky who needs to be changed, not Zaluzhny. This rat feels that he has a zero rating, and Zaluzhny has a higher rating, and [this is why Zelensky] is trying to torpedo him”, a voice message from Shevtsov says.
A recent poll by the Ukrainian Center for Social and Marketing Research SOCIS suggests that if the presidential election were held in Ukraine in 2024, former Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny would secure a significant lead, with 41.4 percent of the first-round vote, surpassing Volodymyr Zelensky’s 23.7 percent. In the parliamentary scenario, Zaluzhny’s hypothetical bloc would lead with 46.4 percent of the vote, according to the same poll.
Meanwhile, according to Daily Mail, dramatic aerial footage reportedly shows the moment two US-made truck-mounted quad-launchers for the Patriot surface-to-air missile systems are destroyed.
A giant explosion followed a strike by a Russian hypersonic Iskander missile.
The Russians have called it the first video-confirmed destruction of the Patriot complex displayed by Ukraine. Each system is believed to cost US$400 million, while missiles can cost up to US$6 million each.
The hit comes after Ukraine is believed to have deployed the Patriot to down a succession of Russian war planes in recent weeks.
If confirmed – and Russia initially claimed Ukrainian S-300 complexes had been blitzed – the strike is a severe blow to Ukraine.
Ukraine only had five of the Patriot systems before this strike, and each battery, with missiles included, cost around a billion dollars each.
Patriots have been supplied to Ukraine by the US, the Netherlands and Germany.
The strike came as the Patriot equipment was being moved near the frontline, seemingly without air cover, near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, according to reports.
The Patriot has been key to Ukraine to defend major cities from incoming strikes but also as an offensive weapon to blow Putin’s warplanes out of the sky.
The system has proved effective against the hypersonic Iskander missile, but it was an Iskander that hit the Patriot complex and its support vehicles.
Loyalist pro-war channel Military Informant called it ‘the first confirmation of the destruction of two American MIM-104 Patriot air defense systems’.
It appears a Russian military drone had spotted the Patriot movement and relayed the data to enable the clinical Iskander targeting.
Russian state news agency TASS claimed that three launchers may have been destroyed but other sources reported two.
‘The Iskander tactical missile system presumably wiped out three launchers of the US-made Patriot system near Pokrovsk,’ a source told TASS.
Each battery has five components: The missiles themselves, the missile launcher, a radar antenna, a control truck and a power-plant truck.
