"A pile of nonsense: authorities should deal with anonymous people briefing from President’s Office" – senior Ukrainian official on Time article

Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council (NSDC), has spoken out about a much talked-about recent article in TIME magazine, saying that the writer has no genuine information about how Staff or Military Cabinet meetings are conducted, and the relevant authorities must find out which people in President Zelenskyy's inner circle do not believe Ukraine will win the war.

Source: Danilov on UP live

Details: Danilov said: "Nothing resembling what is described in the article happens in the halls of government." In particular, meetings of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief are not held as described in the piece.

Quote: "Regarding the claim that he [the president – ed.] walks in and out of the war room. This is nonsense from someone shouting about something they don’t understand...

Meetings of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and meetings of the military cabinets in the Staff format take place constantly. The 114th meeting of the Staff took place today. At each meeting of the Staff, the president pays maximum attention to problems directly from the front because all the representatives of the top military leadership are taking part. To say that anyone would rush in and out is a strange thing.

Secondly, I don't understand where the author is getting these things from. For me, this anonymity [of TIME’s sources in the President’s Office – ed.] raises many questions. If you hold any position, if you believe that our country cannot win, then you have no right to be near our president...

These anonymous backdoor briefings cause enormous harm, first of all, to our country...

I think our authorities should give us an answer – who are these anonymous people who do not believe in our victory but are close to the president?"

Details: Danilov said that regarding Ukraine's losses in the war, the author of the article has employed Russian narratives.

"I just want to say: we understand what our losses are, and what he has written is completely untrue," the NSDC Secretary added.

At the same time, Danilov emphasised that the state of war is a time when many feelings run high, there is a lot of sensitive information and statements made when people are "on edge".

He also noted that there have already been cases where articles have been corrected, positions clarified, and so on.

Danilov added that the main thing is under no circumstances to make such publications harmful to our country, otherwise Ukraine’s enemies could manipulate these messages.

Background:

• The American magazine TIME published an article on the challenges faced by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the war, from the situation in the combat zone and international support to tackling corruption.
• Citing members of the president's entourage, Simon Shuster, the author of the piece, noted that after his last visit to the US, Zelenskyy was feeling "angry".
• The article said that in the second year of the war, Zelenskyy no longer retained "the usual sparkle of his optimism, his sense of humor, his tendency to liven up a meeting in the war room with a bit of banter or a bawdy joke." "Now he walks in, gets the updates, gives the orders, and walks out," the author claims, quoting a longtime member of Zelenskyy’s team.
• The author wrote that some of Zelenskyy's closest aides are convinced that the president is "deluding himself". "We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that," the unnamed representative told the author.

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