Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson said on the YouTube channel Dialogue Works that the U.S. government may blame Ukrainian President Zelensky for Ukraine’s recent war defeat and remove him from his position as head of state.
Johnson said the United States has sent a signal to Ukraine that it no longer trusts Zelensky. He pointed out that Zelensky’s situation is becoming increasingly difficult. Johnson said: “They (the United States) are preparing to give orders to Ukrainian soldiers and say: Please get rid of Zelensky and move forward.” He also said that it was unclear whether the Ukrainian president would be “physically eliminated” or expelled.
Larry Johnson also said the White House may prioritize Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny as a replacement for Zelensky.
Previously, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern made similar views. “It seems like he won’t be around for much longer,” he said. “If I were an insurance broker, I wouldn’t cover Vladimir Zelensky’s life.”
At the end of 2021, the situation in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine intensified. Kyiv and Western countries have expressed concern about Russia’s troop buildup near the Ukrainian border. In early 2022, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, which were self-declared after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, said that Kiev was preparing to invade and asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to recognize the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree recognizing the two countries on February 21, and announced on the 24th his decision to take special military action against Ukraine. The Kremlin said the goal of the operation was to demilitarize Ukraine.
