Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was weighing up a possible dismissal of the country’s top military officer, a prospect that has shocked the nation fighting Russia’s invasion and worried Kyiv’s Western allies.

Asked whether he was considering the ousting of General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Mr Zelenskiy told Italian RAI TV in an interview released late on Sunday that he was thinking about it as part of a broader issue of setting the country’s path.

He said that “a reset, a new beginning is necessary” and it is “not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership”.

“I’m thinking about this replacement, but you can’t say here we replaced a single person,” Mr Zelenskiy said. “When we talk about this, I mean a replacement of a series of state leaders, not just in a single sector like the military.

“If we want to win we must all push in the same direction, convinced of victory, we cannot be discouraged, let our arms fall, we must have the right positive energy.”

Mr Zelenskiy’s comments marked his first confirmation that he was mulling replacing the widely popular general, a possibility that caused an uproar in Ukraine and delighted the Kremlin as the war approaches its second anniversary.

According to Ukrainian and Western media reports, Mr Zelenskiy last week offered for Gen Zaluzhnyi to resign, but he refused. Gen Zaluzhnyi has not commented on the issue.

The tensions between the president and Gen Zaluznyi have been rising as the country grapples with dire ammunition and personnel shortages following a failed summer counteroffensive. The need for a broad mobilisation to fill the ranks has reportedly been one of the areas of disagreement.

Mr Zelenskiy said at the end of last year that he had turned down the military’s request to mobilise up to 500,000 people, demanding more details about how it would be organised and paid for.

A rift between Gen Zaluzhnyi and Mr Zelenskiy first broke into the open last autumn when the general acknowledged in an interview with The Economist that the fighting with Russia had stalemated. The president strongly denied that was the case.

Ukraine desperately needs more Western military assistance as the Russian forces are pressing in many directions of the 1,500-km (900-mile) frontline, but an aid package had been blocked in the US Congress. Gen Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal could fuel uncertainty among Western allies.

Russia has rejoiced at the prospect, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that the talk about Gen Zaluzhnyi’s dismissal exposed rifts in the Ukrainian leadership.