Russian leader Vladimir Putin has made it clear that he has information that the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, is abroad, Russian press agencies write. A fragment of Putin’s statement was published in Telegram on Sunday by one of the Kremlin’s propagandists, Pavlo Zarubin. Back in May, Russian propaganda insisted on the “liquidation” of two leaders of the Ukrainian army, including Valery Zaluzhny, and Ukraine denied it.

Asked by Russian military journalists and bloggers if he knew where General Zaluzhny was, Putin ironically replied: “Well, ask him. But for this you need to use a foreign language.”

“I think he is abroad. But I could be wrong,” Putin added.

Putin’s message, voiced by one of his propagandists

Such an excerpt from Putin’s conversation with journalists who write about the war that took place on June 13 was published on Sunday on his Telegram channel by journalist Pavlo Zarubin, one of Putin’s propagandists, who hosts the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” from Russia-1 TV channel, Interfax reports, News.ro reports.

In May, the Russian media reported that Zaluzhnye was seriously injured in the attack. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense denied this information, but Zaluzhny did not appear in public for a long time and refused to participate in the meeting of the NATO Chiefs of Staff Committee “even in the format of a video conference” due to the “tense operational situation.” from Ukraine, in turn mentions the TASS agency.

On May 10, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense denied the deaths of Army Chief General Valery Zaluzhny and Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrsky after several Russian Telegram accounts insisted that Zaluzhny and Syrsky were “liquidated” by Russian forces. Ukrainian mass media, in particular Unian, Ukrinform and Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, report.

The information in the Russian media appeared after it became known that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyi will not be able to participate in the meeting of the NATO Military Committee.

At the same time, the head of Russian foreign intelligence Serhii Naryshkin told reporters that the Russian authorities had received information about Zaluzhny’s health, but did not want to reveal anything.

Later, in the Ukrainian press, a video appeared on May 25 with the head of the army, and the next day, in his presence, a ceremonial opening of a new warship took place, writes TASS.

Also this week, Russian channels reported that the head of the intelligence service of the Ukrainian army, General Kyrylo Budanov, was seriously injured and is being treated in Germany.

In his video address to Ukrainians on Friday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had a meeting of the military council to discuss the counteroffensive, in which both Zaluzhny and Budanov took part.