Mark Sleboda, a security analyst, told Sputnik that Burns’ visit “dovetails” with Andriy Yermak, “Zelensky’s powerful, grey, cardinal, chief of staff,” who is visiting Washington this week to meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Blinken duly made promises to continue Kiev’s military support in the US-Russian proxy war.
“The general assumption is that this has to do with the growing rift between Zelensky, the president of the Kiev regime, and [Valery] Zaluzhny, the regime’s top general,” Sleboda explained, noting that Western mainstream media were “openly now reporting about the rift and speculating that they are on the verge of some type of open conflict.”
By March 31, 2024, he noted, the US-backed state of Ukraine was already under pressure to organize a presidential election on time, “with the intention of replacing Zelensky, who may appear to have lost confidence, with Zaluzhny.”
Zelensky announced this week that the election will not go on due to the continuing violence and the secession of four regions to Russia in 2022.
“First he said: ‘OK, if you pay for it’. And then last week it became: ‘no, no elections’,” Sleboda said. “And now Zaluzhny’s top deputies, those close to him, we’ve had one fired. We’ve had another one blown up at his birthday party by either a moronic accident or a targeted political assassination by those close to Zelensky.”
Burns’ intervention, the analyst surmised, may be directed at either “tamping it down or settling it or whatever, but saying that this is not acceptable, this is the road to disaster and your patron does not allow this, stop fighting — or they’re telling Zelensky to go away.”
Officials are targeting anyone perceived to be friendly to former US President Donald Trump in addition to targeting Zaluzhny’s camp. Zelensky was ordered by Trump to look into potential wrongdoing involving his competitor Joe Biden and his son Hunter due to their extensive participation in Ukraine.
Recently, two lawmakers and a former prosecutor were accused of treason for helping former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, with his own investigations into the Biden family’s financial activities.