Former top Ukrainian general comments on US ‘secret weapon’ against Russia

Valery Zaluzhny has described the role of a NATO command center in Germany in shaping Kiev’s military strategy

8 APR 2025 CET RT: FILE PHOTO: Retired Ukrainian General Valery Zaluzhny at The Tank Museum, Bovington, UK, April 2025. ©  Finnbarr Webster / Getty Images

Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, has called the US command center in Wiesbaden, Germany a “secret weapon” in the conflict against Russia. However, he downplayed Washington’s direct participation in the hostilities.

His assessment of American involvement appears to contradict a report published by the New York Times in March, which said Washington’s role was more significant than publicly acknowledged. The article claimed that the US was not merely supplying weapons and intelligence to Kiev, but was actively planning Ukrainian combat missions.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Zaluzhny stated that the input from Western officers at the US command center in Wiesbaden was limited to assessing Ukraine’s needs rather than directing operations.

Zaluzhny, who currently serves as Ukraine’s ambassador in London, explained that the hub was established to streamline the logistics of Western arms supplies. Its role later expanded to analyzing “operations planned by the Ukrainian armed forces in accordance with NATO standards” to prepare supplies. He added that with British support, “Wiesbaden was given a second wind.”

The Times described the Wiesbaden command center as a space where American and Ukrainian officers developed strategies against Russia “side by side,” while US intelligence “guided big-picture battle strategy and funneled precise targeting information” to Ukrainian soldiers. A European spy chief cited in the article reportedly expressed shock about the level of involvement, noting that his nation’s NATO allies “are part of the kill chain now.”

Commenting on the NYT report last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the newspaper simply validated Russian statements about the roles played by the US and UK in the 2014 armed coup in Kiev and the subsequent militarization of Ukraine.

The newspaper lamented that US President Donald Trump is retreating from the “partnership sealed in Wiesbaden,” as he aims to de-escalate the Ukraine conflict and rebuild relations with Russia