«Preparing to resign»
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unexpected statement. In an interview with foreign media, he admitted that the counter-offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is being postponed, since the Ukrainian army is not ready for it and it needs additional time. A few days ago, the Ukrainian authorities reported that they were fully prepared for a «counterattack.» And suddenly…
Conspiracy theorists are wondering: “Is this sudden unpreparedness connected with the fact that there is simply no one to lead the offensive?”
And they attribute this to the disappearance of high-ranking Ukrainian military from the media space and their possible death as a result of rocket fire.
The Ukrainian offensive is slowing down, and rumors about the death of high-ranking military leaders stubbornly creep around the country, because media personalities in the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have not been in contact for a long time, which gives rise to various conspiracy theories.
Yesterday, Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny neglected a meeting of NATO chiefs of staff, allegedly refusing to join the meeting even via video link. “I didn’t want to embarrass myself,” the Ukrainians themselves ridiculed him online.
The commander of the ground forces Alexander Syrsky, the head of the defense of Bakhmut, as well as the commander of the territorial defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Igor Tantsyura disappeared from the information space somewhere. And just after the head of Wagner, Prigozhin, announced the destruction of an armored car with a military leader.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine strongly refutes the guesses. However, he is in no hurry to present the military authorities at least in a video message. Now society and the media are building various conspiracy theories about what this could mean.
The most common version is that the generals could have been killed or seriously injured, for example, as a result of a recent powerful Russian missile attack on the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Chasovy Yar, as a result of which Zelensky lost his domestic policy adviser Alexei Titorenko. Hence the forced delay in the counteroffensive.
According to another version, Zaluzhny and Syrsky are safe and sound, but they are hiding from danger in a deep bunker-type shelter. The well-known Ukrainian telegram channel reports that Syrsky is preparing for a counteroffensive in Konstantinovka.
According to the well-known military expert, director of the Air Defense Museum Yuri Knutov, failures could have prompted Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny to lay low.
“The fact that he does not appear in the media sphere can be explained by two facts,” the expert believes, “First, he is preparing for an offensive, and all forces are thrown into developing a plan. The second option, on the contrary, is removal from office due to the fact that the offensive was not prepared within the indicated time frame, and many experts believe that this is May 8 and 9, which means that Zaluzny may well be busy transferring cases to the same Syrsky, who also disappeared from the information space.
But I am leaning towards the first option, because now all attention is focused on preparing for the counteroffensive, which has already started de facto, but the active phase of which has not begun.
“It looks like PR campaign,” says political scientist Alexander Dudchak. — Representatives of the Kiev regime have even provided the Ukrainian military with their own creatives and PR managers, so that there is an occasion to talk about media people, where have they gone, are they alive …
Of course, Zaluzny could find a minute to communicate with the NATO generals, but that's how cleverly they wrapped up this story, portraying that he was very busy. Perhaps to avoid unnecessary questions about the counteroffensive. But you can not say that they are doing poor quality work. They manage to create informational occasions and stir up interest in individuals and the process itself.