Marching Toward a Night of the Long Knives in Ukraine

by SIMPLICIUS THE THINKER

The stakes rise as Ukraine’s internal situation undergoes major turmoil, with opposing factions now openly clashing for power in an increasingly deadly way.

Zaluzhny’s personal right hand man was blown up by a grenade delivered to him via birthday present. Official explanations seek to downplay it as an innocent ‘accident.’ It was the same excuse of ‘accidental horseplay’ implied by Putin to have been responsible for Prigozhin’s death. Naturally, both explanations are 100% phony.

 
It was surprising to see how many of the gullible fell for it. There are no ‘coincidences’ in the great game of power politics, especially one centered on as corrupt a state, and insidious a political class, as that of Ukraine.

The timing is far too suspicious. First Zaluzhny releases a highly ‘troubling’ and apparently unsanctioned article for The Economist, which causes Zelensky to immediately censure him. Then Zelensky himself makes several high-stakes moves, such as doing a 180 turn and canceling elections, a clear signal to his ‘Western partners’ that he’s likely going rogue.

But let’s back up a moment. Zelensky has been extremely “disappointed” with Western partners, if you’ll recall. This stems all the way back to the NATO Vilnius summit where he came off looking like a beggar, was reprimanded by his own allies for going “too overboard” in his heavy-handed demands, and then left empty handed without any of the big ticket promises fulfilled—including the biggest of all: direct NATO membership.

Now, there have been increasing rumors of major friction between Zelensky and the general staff, echoing Bakhmut intrigues. Zaluzhny wanted to retreat from Avdeevka, viewing the meatgrinder as a pointless drain on manpower.

But recall, Zaluzhny can only view things from a military standpoint: black and white, A or B perspective of military logic: this meatgrinder is exterminating our troops so it must be bad, we must pull back.

Zelensky’s job is the overall picture—perception management, the health of public sentiment both domestic and—even more importantly—that of allied nations. He knows pulling back from Avdeevka would be a final blow to Ukraine’s credibility of ever standing any chance of defeating Russia. He knows aid would dry up and allies would pull the plug—so he’s forced to use a heavy hand.

Zaluzhny went around his boss’s back and made his own sneaky appeal to the West with his article—some believing it to be a secret cry for help, meant to expose the situation’s severity, which Zelensky himself carefully shields. This is what infuriated Zelensky.

 
Now, given rumors that Zaluzhny was one of the potential presidential candidates with the strongest backing and largest popularity, outside Zelensky himself, it’s thought that Zelensky needed to send a sharp message to bring Zaluzhny back in line. The assassination of his personal aide was the “horse head in the bed” moment, for those who’ve seen Godfather.

 
There has been a host of recent rumors that, absent new Western pledges of aid, Zelensky was going to transition the whole operation into some form of epochal ‘Plan B’ consisting of several new maximalist initiatives, such as:

1. Cancellation of elections
2. Complete overhaul of the Ukrainian high command and general staff
3. A total reorientation of Ukrainian military strategy
4. Full societal mobilization to tap the final remaining and largest untapped reserve of bodies: exempted university students

He’s already completed #1. As for #2, it was reported days ago that Zelensky just fired the head of the entire Ukrainian special forces, General Khorenko, who also happened to be one of Zaluzhny’s top deputies of his inner council.

Gateway Pundit writes:

The public censure of Zaluzhny was not the only reaction to his words. A day before, the president’s office replaced one of the commander’s top deputies – the head of special operations forces, General Khorenko.

“The emerging fissure between the general and the president comes as Ukraine is struggling in its war effort, militarily and diplomatically. Its operations along the roughly 600-mile-long trench line have failed to produce any advances, while resulting in high casualties on both sides, and Ukraine is facing intensified Russian attacks in the East. At the same time, skepticism about Ukraine aid has increased in some European capitals and among members of the Republican Party in the United States.”

You think it’s a “coincidence” that two of Zaluzhny’s very top deputies were erased literally days apart, one by firing, the other by grenade?

The following unsourced report backs this:

☄️☄️☄️According to my information, Zelensky will completely change the composition of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the coming months. Almost all the people of Zaluzhny will be removed from their positions. Oleshchuk, Bargilevich, Tarnavsky, Shaptala and many others☄️☄️☄️

Then there was the post from Ukrainian parliament member Volodymyr Ariev which outright said that the president’s office has issued a decree to dismiss Zaluzhny from his Commander-in-Chief position:

 
However, he quickly retracted the statement:

 
Whether it’s true or not, there are clearly major intrigues and upheavals surging through Ukrainian political ranks.

New Ukrainian Defense Minister (who replaced Reznikov) also issued this statement:

 
If that wasn’t bad enough, Russian old guard, silovik, and intelligence chief Patrushev came out swinging with the claim that there are people inside Kiev ready to ‘take power’:

 
Recall it’s been one of my longest running predictions that the final end would likely come by way of amnesty deals made between usurpers inside Kiev and Russian intelligence handlers, at a point when Ukraine was nearing collapse.

That’s because this is a natural, methodical conclusion which happens all the time in these sort of conflicts. The closer things get to an end, the more rats flee the sinking ship and people who’ve never held true loyalties become willing to switch sides for the right amnesty deal, out of fear or even for financial remuneration, which Russian intel agencies can easily promise them; that’s their job during such critical transition periods, after all. This is standard end-game shadow work—the U.S. did it in Iraq, amongst other places.

Patrushev’s insinuating article states:

These forces are already “standing in the wings” and are ready to take power when the time is right, the former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) chief said, without elaborating who exactly he may be referring to.

Now as for #4 from above, regarding mobilization, this note came in from the Rezident_UA channel:

Rezident

“Our sources from the OP said that Zelensky began to discuss the format of general mobilization, when a million Ukrainians could be drafted into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The President is ready to take extreme measures and allow the conscription of students over 20 years of age.”

So what can we summarize about all this internecine strife?

It’s clear that Ukraine is being pulled apart in two separate directions, with factions forming around each. Zelensky’s insider gang represents the most hardened of the deepstate neocon lineage, tied directly to globalist interests.

 
For instance, many believe that Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s head of the presidential office, is the man who really runs the country and was responsible for the “hit” on Zaluzhny’s aide. Yermak is the ‘gray eminence’ always shadowing Zelensky, who cowers before him like a chastened student.

In fact in an article from only a couple months ago, Politico seemed to be laying the groundwork of who would take control if Zelensky’s presidential tenure happened to suffer an ‘unscheduled rapid disassembly’:

The governing council would most likely consist of Stefanchuk as the figurehead, along with Andrii Yermak, the former movie producer and lawyer who’s the head of the office of the president, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. Valery Zaluzhny would remain as the country’s top general.

Out of the four listed above, Reznikov is already gone, and Stefanchuk is listed as just a “figurehead.”

Just today, on his official Twitter account Yermak, who is also Jewish, announced his meeting with George Soros’ son, who now runs the Soros empire:

“They talked a lot about Ukraine, the restoration of our state, victory over Russia, the return of Ukrainian children who were kidnapped by Russia and the project of President Vladimir Zelensky Bring Kids Back UA. I am very grateful to my friend Alexander Soros for his vision and confidence in Ukraine, in our people. Also discussed joint work on the seizure of Russian assets and their further transfer for the restoration of Ukraine,” the head of the OP described the meeting.

He explained the meeting revolved around ‘investments’ in Ukraine’s infrastructure, economy, and future—i.e. selling it off to the criminal globalist cabal.

The point of all this is to highlight the types of factions forming.

Zaluzhny appears to be outside of that deeply entrenched circle, and may be starting to represent an increasingly dangerous challenge to their hold on power, particularly with the nearing elections—now ostensibly nixed.

Zelensky’s sudden cancellation of elections, the reshuffling of staff and assassination of Zaluzhny’s top aide are all connected events, particularly given that they happened a mere day apart.

Lastly, today Arestovich published this new, cutting, and extremely pertinent appeal on his official Twitter account, addressed to Zelensky:

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