![\"\"](\"https:\/\/geopoliticsamongstates.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1000022106.webp\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nPresident Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference last week in Rome. \/ Photo by Michael Kappeler\/Picture Alliance via Getty Images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
THE END FOR ZELENSKY?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Washington wants the Ukrainian president to leave office\u2014will it happen?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fall of 2023, Ukrainian General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of the country\u2019s armed forces, gave an interview to the Economist and declared the war with Russia had become a \u201cstalemate.\u201d It took three months for President Volodymyr Zelensky to fire him. The general, who is the most popular public figure in Ukraine, was named ambassador to London a month later and has served there with distinction, if quietly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zaluzhnyi is now seen as the most credible successor to Zelensky. I have been told by knowledgeable officials in Washington that that job could be his within a few months. Zelensky is on a short list for exile, if President Donald Trump decides to make the call. If Zelensky refuses to leave his office, as is most likely, an involved US official told me: \u201cHe\u2019s going to go by force. The ball is in his court.\u201d There are many in Washington and in Ukraine who believe that the escalating air war with Russia must end soon, while there\u2019s still a chance to make a settlement with its president, Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the Ukraine Reconstruction Conference last week in Rome. \/ Photo by Michael Kappeler\/Picture Alliance via Getty Images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n