Overview
- Valerii Zaluzhnyi told the Associated Press that dozens of Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) agents arrived at his concealed Kyiv command post in mid‑September 2022 to conduct searches, which he viewed as intimidation.
- He said he warned presidential chief of staff Andrii Yermak that he was ready to deploy forces to stop the action and called then‑SSU head Vasyl Maliuk to seek an explanation.
- The SSU acknowledged officers visited the address during an organized‑crime probe but said no searches took place and that Maliuk and Zaluzhnyi immediately resolved the misunderstanding.
- AP reported it could not independently verify the alleged raid, while court records show the SSU sought a search warrant two days earlier for the same address tied to a strip club investigation.
- Zaluzhnyi also criticized the 2023 counteroffensive’s execution as politically diluted from an original single‑thrust plan, a description two Western defense officials told AP broadly matched their understanding.