Personnel decisions in Ukraine Army matter for Ukraine authorities - Biden’s adviser

Ukrainian authorities independently decide on personnel issues in the Armed Forces of Ukraine without the United States’ participation.

This was stated by Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Adviser, who spoke in an interview with Face the Nation on CBS News, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The personnel decisions in the Ukrainian Armed Forces are a matter for the Ukrainian government. That is not something the US government should be weighing in on one way or the other. And so we have stayed out of that set of personnel decisions. And of course, it's the sovereign right of Ukraine and the right of the President of Ukraine to make his personnel decisions," he said.

Sullivan added that the US has already made it clear that it is not going to “get embroiled” in personnel decisions.

"We have indicated that directly to the Ukrainians," he said.

As reported, on the evening of January 29, unverified reports came out claiming President Volodymyr Zelensky had allegedly signed a decree to dismiss Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.

In a comment to Ukrinform, president’s press secretary Serhiy Nikiforov refuted the said reports, saying that "there is no subject for discussion, I refute (the report on – ed.) Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal."

On February 2, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, stated that there is currently no decree in place on Zaluzhnyi's dismissal.