Zelensky was preparing to replace senior officials and was dangerously close to the fighting

The comments come as speculation continues that the president is preparing to fire the commander of Ukraine's armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny.
"This is a matter of people who should lead Ukraine. A realignment is necessary, I am talking about replacing a number of state leaders, not only in the army sector," Zelensky said
For weeks, Ukraine has been gripped by speculation that the president is close to firing the hugely popular commander of the armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny. The two are at odds over the conduct of the nearly two-year-old Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But in a Feb. 4 interview, Zelensky said all the changes go beyond replacing one person to harness efforts to push out Russian troops.
"When I talk about a change, I mean something serious that does not affect one person, but the direction of the country's leadership," Zelensky told Italian state television when asked about Zaluzhny.
To win the war, Zelensky said, "we all have to push in the same direction, we can't get discouraged, we have to have the right and positive energy, negativity has to be left at home."
The differences came to the fore after a Ukrainian counter-offensive launched last year achieved only limited success against Russian forces entrenched along a 1,000km front line in southern and eastern Ukraine.
In an essay for the Economist last November, Zaluzhnyi said the war had entered a new, grueling phase. This caused criticism from President Zelensky.
Last week, as speculation about his dismissal intensified, Zaluzhny made his case in a commentary on CNN about new electronic means of warfare.
He also said some Ukrainian institutions were preventing the country from achieving its goals, including efforts to build an effective fighting force to match Russia's numerical superiority, through "unpopular measures" such as mass mobilization.
Zaluzhny won the admiration of Ukrainians for overseeing operations to repel Russian forces advancing on Kiev at the start of the war and the subsequent offensives that retook large swathes of territory in the south and northeast of the country.
Twice in the past week, Ukrainian media reported that Zaluzhny's dismissal was imminent. In at least one of the cases, the president's spokesman denied that the commander had been replaced.
Questions were also raised about whether Zaluzhnyi had been offered an alternative job, such as an ambassadorial post, and who could replace him.
Meanwhile, late on February 4, the Ukrainian president said he had visited troops in the southern village of Robotyne, which Kiev retook from Russian forces last summer but has come under heavy attack again. Kiev recaptured the small village in southern Zaporozhye region in August last year, which it declared a major success in its counteroffensive against Russian forces. Since then, Robotine has been relentlessly attacked by Russian troops and is one of the main hotspots on the southern front.
"Zaporizhia region. Robotine. The location of the 65th mechanized brigade. I talked with the defenders, thanked them and presented state awards," Zelensky said on social networks. "It's an honor to be here today."
A video posted on Facebook shows the president in uniform meeting with soldiers in a dark room that looks like an underground cellar.
"I have the great honor to be here today, to award you, because on your shoulders lies such a difficult and decisive mission to repel the enemy and win this war," Zelensky told the fighters.
"I wish you victory, I want to reward you and I wish you to do everything to achieve this victory sooner," he said.
Later on Sunday, his spokesman said Zelensky was "relatively close" to the explosions during his trip. "This is Robotine, and there is active fighting there, so there were relatively close explosions," said Sergey Nikiforov. "But I wouldn't dramatize the situation." Last year, the 65th Brigade stormed the village.
Although the recapture of Robotine was hailed as a success of Kiev's counteroffensive, since then Ukraine's efforts to regain territory lost to Moscow have slowed down significantly./BGNES