Ukraine’s Western backers have stepped up efforts to find a replacement for Vladimir Zelensky, an operative with Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has claimed in a declassified report. The document was published in the latest issue of the SVR’s Razvedchik (‘Scout’) magazine.
According to an operative using the pseudonym ‘Stone’, the US and EU are “extremely concerned” by “growing discontent” among Ukraine’s population over the protracted conflict and the current leadership’s inability to end it, especially after the expiration of Zelensky’s presidential term last May.
While Western powers will tolerate Zelensky for now since he is “linked to war financing schemes that bring enormous income to both the Kiev regime and Western arms manufacturers,” Stone claimed they had stepped up efforts to find a suitable replacement.
According to the operative, the West has already reached out to former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and Kiev Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko, as well as Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak, previously described by The Times as Ukraine’s de facto ruler. The countrty’s former top military commander General Valery Zaluzhny and the ex-speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Dmitry Razumkov, are also on the list of potential Zelensky replacements, Stone claimed.
“It is assumed that these persons may be in demand in the event of a sharp deterioration of the situation on the front line and the need for an urgent change of leadership. Then it will be possible to choose one of them, blaming all the failures on Zelensky,” the operative stated.
He added that, for the US and EU, the focal point in dealing with Kiev’s leadership is currently “to prevent a critical increase in disappointment among Ukrainians with the failures of pro-Western policies.”
While Zelensky’s legal claim to office has been in dispute since the end of May, he has ruled out holding presidential elections, citing martial law. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month predicted that Ukraine’s Western backers would remove Zelensky from power once he has pushed through all necessary “unpopular decisions,” which could be as early as next year. At a press conference during a visit to Vietnam, Putin said Zelensky only remains in power because he has not yet outlived his usefulness.
In an SVR report published in May, which cited closed opinion polls conducted by the US and EU, the agency claimed that the level of support for Vladimir Zelensky, which had topped 80% in the initial months of the conflict, had dropped to 17% and continues to decline.