From a ‘dangerous competitor’ to an unknown: Who could replace Zelenskyy?

Popular former general Zaluzhnyi leads potential challengers, alongside intelligence chief Budanov and reformer Fedorov.

Kyiv, Ukraine – The White House wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gone.

In response to Trump’s remarks, Zelenskyy proposed holding a vote if Russian President Vladimir Putin guaranteed a 60-day ceasefire.

“If the elections are held fast, one of the former military [commanders] is Zelenskyy’s most probable rival,” Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevych told Al Jazeera.

“At least since 2023, and especially since 2024, after his resignation, the most probable alternative to Zelenskyy, his most dangerous competitor who can defeat him in the election is Valerii Zaluzhnyi,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera.

Almost two-thirds of Ukrainians – 64 percent – trust him, according to an October 8 poll by the Rating Group, a Kyiv-based pollster, and only 25 percent “distrust” him.

After defending Kyiv in the early weeks of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, Zaluzhnyi led counteroffensives that returned 40 percent of Russian-controlled territory to Ukraine.

Zaluzhnyi remains a man of mystery when it comes to the most pressing postwar matters.

He does not take part in talk shows, barely talks to journalists and occasionally publishes opinion pieces with detailed analyses of war-related problems and general statements about securing lasting peace and security guarantees from Ukraine’s Western partners.

The former comedian was elected in 2019 with 73 percent of the vote, the highest result in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history.