Russia is looking for 5 Ukrainian presidential candidates, one is more unreliable than the other. If you want Zelensky to step down, you still have to rely on the Russian army to completely defeat Ukraine on the battlefield.
Russia's "Military Watch" website recently published a commentator's article, saying that due to Ukraine's military defeat, the West has to consider replacing Zelensky. The West is not satisfied with the results of the autumn counteroffensive, they consider Zelensky "very incompetent" and "said too many bad things about Russia." The West needs a new puppet, and Zelensky has fulfilled his mission.
[The West is not satisfied with the results of the autumn counteroffensive]
The article cites a "list of candidates for the new president of Ukraine" announced by Russian intelligence at the beginning of this month, including five people, including the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Zaluzhny. The Russian side said that these five people will replace Zelensky in next year's presidential election.
The first is Zaluzhny. He is currently the most likely, second only to Zelensky in his poll figures, and as a military man he is respected by all parties in Ukrainian politics, and the West also believes in him, because Zaluzhny believes in NATO standards and weapons.
In the article's view, Zaluzhny did not show his "political ambitions" until he bluntly stated in an interview last month that "the front line is deadlocked" and showed the contradictions between him and Zelensky. Zaluzhny wants to put the blame for the failure of the counteroffensive on Zelensky and take the first step towards the presidency.
[Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Army Zaluzhny bluntly said that "the front line has reached a stalemate"]
The second was the head of military intelligence, Budanov. Budanov has been fighting in the Donbas since 2014, and in 2016 he also infiltrated Crimea as a member of a sabotage group. He had been wounded several times in battle, and even had a piece of shrapnel in his body. Because Budanov planned the assassination of Dugina and others after the conflict, Russia considered him a "big terrorist."
The third is Yermak, Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine. Yermak is Zelensky's most trusted person, he turned out to be just a filmmaker, a director, and met and became friends with Zelensky, who was still an actor at the time, for work reasons. After Zelensky became president, he needed a trustworthy person to be his first secretary, and this person was Yermak.
The fourth is Arestovich, former adviser to the head of the President's Office. He was once Zelensky's best-known thinker, predicting the inevitable outbreak of war between Russia and Ukraine in 2019, and after the conflict broke out, he was the unofficial spokesman for the Ukrainian government for a time, but he resigned from his post in January and fled to Italy because of political disagreements with Zelensky.
[Former Adviser to the President's Office Arestovich]
The fifth is the current mayor of Kyiv, a former professional boxer, WBC heavyweight champion Krychko. The only reason Krychko appears on this list is simply that Russian intelligence really can't find a fifth person to make up the numbers.
To be honest, the five Ukrainian presidential candidates found by the Russian intelligence services are more unreliable than the other, even Zaluzhny, he has never said that he wants to run for president, and the statement that "the front line has reached a stalemate" is not linked to the so-called "political ambitions" at all.
Taking a step back, as early as a month ago, all parliamentary parties and groups in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, with the exception of the political group "Ukrainian Renaissance", signed a joint statement stating that Ukraine should not hold any elections in wartime, including presidential and presidential elections. It can be said that it is already a sure thing that Ukraine will not hold a presidential election next year, and the Russian media is still "frying cold rice" here and finding a successor for Zelensky, which is purely entertaining themselves.
[The best way to get Zelensky out of power is to completely defeat Ukraine on the battlefield]
Again, the best way to get Zelensky out of power is to completely defeat Ukraine on the battlefield. It is useless to sow discord between the West and Zelensky, as long as Biden supports Zelensky, then Zelensky's presidential chair will sit firmly.
In fact, the more Russia advertises that "the West wants to replace Zelensky", the more it shows that they do not want to see Zelensky sit in that chair.
A "hot knowledge": Zelensky came to power in 2019, in fact, there was Russia behind it. Before 2014, Zelensky worked in Russia for a long time and was the most famous comedian in Russia, the kind that can appear on the "Russian Spring Festival Gala", and he doesn't even speak Ukrainian.
[Zelensky came to power in 2019, in fact, there was Russia's impetus behind it]
After the Crimean crisis, Zelensky returned to Ukraine, but his attitude towards Russia remained more modest, at least relative to his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko. After coming to power in 2019, he eased Ukraine's hostility with Russia and worked on peace negotiations: the two sides not only exchanged detainees, but also signed new gas contracts, and Russian television even began broadcasting the TV series "Servant of the People" starring Zelensky.
So when the war first started last year, Russia initially expected Zelensky to run, but it didn't, turning the conflict into a protracted war, and Zelensky also became a "thorn in the side" of Russia, hoping that he would step down quickly.
However, even if Zelensky really leaves the presidency as Russia wishes, then the people who come up may not immediately announce the end of the conflict and peace talks with Russia. Now the national mood in Ukraine has been pulled to its fullest. If the West forces a new president to end the conflict, it is estimated that no one will dare to take this hot potato - no one will dare to be a "traitor" and bear infamy.
So for Russia, the only advantage of replacing Zelensky is that he will most likely not do better than Zelensky, unite Ukraine more than Zelensky, and Russia can win at a smaller cost and more easily. And even if Zelensky cannot be replaced, through some information operations, to shake the unity within Ukraine, Russia will be sure to make a profit.