Russia’s foreign intelligence agency SVR has claimed that Ukraine’s Western backers have stepped up efforts to find a replacement for Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to an SVR operative who goes by the pseudonym ‘Stone’, the US and the EU are “extremely concerned” and “growing discontent” over the protracted conflict in Ukraine and the current leadership’s inability to end it, particularly after Zelensky’s presidency ends.

While they have stepped up efforts to find a suitable replacement, Western powers are said to be supporting Zelensky so far because the Ukraine war is bringing huge profits to Western arms manufacturers.

According to Stone, the West has already contacted former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, as well as Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who the Times described as Ukraine’s de facto ruler. The country’s former top military commander, General Valery Zaluzhny, and former speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, Dmitriy Razumkov, are also on the list of potential Zelensky replacements, Stone said.

“It is assumed that these people may be in demand when the situation in the front line is deteriorating sharply and there is an urgent need for leadership change. Then it will be possible to choose one of them, blaming Zelensky for all the failures,” he said.

Zelensky’s legal claim to office has been in dispute since late May, when he refused to hold presidential elections, citing martial law. Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted last month that Ukraine’s Western backers would oust Zelensky after pushing through all the necessary “unpopular decisions”, which could happen as early as next year.