General Dmytro Gerega new commander of the auxiliary departments of the Armed Forces and General Oleksandr Trepak new commander of the special forces. These are the innovations contained in a decree signed this week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. But another change is the most interesting: General Valery Zaluzhny, former commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, is exempted from military service and for health reasons. Last February 8, Zaluzhny was dismissed from the position of commander of the Armed Forces and a day later he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. The following March 7, Zelensky gave the green light to Zaluzhny himself as Ukraine’s new ambassador to the United Kingdom. Appointment which is contained in the same decree this week.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, explained that Zaluzhny was chosen for the post of ambassador to London because he has deep knowledge of the military context.
A choice that underlines the importance attributed by the government to the relationship with the British government, but more generally with London, regardless of the political color of the executive. The United Kingdom is, in fact, thanks also to bipartisan support, the third country for aid to Ukraine, after the United States and Germany. He was also the first G7 member to sign, in January, the security agreements agreed during the NATO summit last summer (France, Germany and Italy arrived a few weeks later while Kyiv and Washington are working to finalize the text ). On that occasion, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed new military funding for Ukraine. The package, worth 3 billion euros, was the largest that London has granted to Kyiv. The aid arrived at a time of stalemate over US funding for Ukraine, with the Biden administration grappling with resistance (later overcome) from the Republican Party.
The decree appointing Zaluzhny arrived, however, the day after the announcement by the British government of the expulsion of the Russian defense attaché Maxim Yelovik on charges of espionage as part of various measures aimed at breaking up some intelligence networks. Moscow intelligence in the UK. James Cleverly, Britain’s home secretary, said the package targets what he called “reckless and dangerous activities by the Russian government across Europe.” Yelovik was described as “an undisclosed military intelligence officer.” In addition to the expulsion, the government in London said it would remove the status of diplomatic posts from several Russian properties in the country, including the Seacox Heath country estate used as a refuge by Russian embassy staff. Also targeted is the Russian trade and defense section at Highgate, a secure complex in North London, near Karl Marx’s grave and Hampstead Heath park, which the British government said it believed had been used to intelligence purposes.
Moscow announced “an appropriate response” through Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry. The extent of the response is not yet clear but it is highly likely that Russia will decide to “eye for an eye”, expelling the British military attaché in Moscow. Never since they were established in 1941 have military relations between the two countries been severed. Reduced yes, but never interrupted.
It will therefore be up to the intelligence community to maintain contacts on military issues, which are fundamental in “normal” periods and even more crucial in this period, with the Russian army in transformation and the invasion of Ukraine continuing.
These latest developments say something about the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. As the conservative British newspaper Telegraph observed in recent days, while the Biden administration continues to favor careful management of the risks of escalation with Russia, the United Kingdom responds to Russia’s escalation with the same coin. Since the beginning of the war, in February two years ago, London has been more aggressive than Washington in supporting Kyiv. “British special forces operated in Ukraine much closer to the front lines than is commonly thought,” notes the Telegraph. “The active presence and influence associated with the Ukrainian armed forces are manifested above all in the raids and drone attacks that Ukraine has carried out within Russian territory,” continues the British newspaper, highlighting how this policy is far from what would be the American indication.
The two countries have strong political, diplomatic, military and intelligence relations. The latter, in particular, have their roots in the collaboration during the Second World War between the respective signals intelligence services. Until 2016, British foreign policy was marked by two elements: membership of the European Union and the special relationship with the United States. Brexit has canceled the first element and weakened the second, also in light of the fact that Washington has often considered London a sort of presence in Brussels. The arrival of Donald Trump in the White House did the rest despite a certain commonality of views with the conservatives in power in London since 2010.
The valuable work of British intelligence in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine allowed the alliance to be strengthened. But, as mentioned, some distances are emerging, and they are not limited to British domestic politics and the consequences of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.
Now, also in light of the probable victory of the Labor Party in the British elections which should be achieved between the end of this year and the beginning of next year, a return of Trump could mark a greater distance between the two historic allies.
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