Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valeriy Zaluzhny was wounded in the head and repeatedly by shrapnel in a missile attack launched by Russian troops in early May on a command post near the village of Posad-Pokrovskoye near Kherson. On this subject, RIA Novosti cites a representative of Russian law enforcement, who, in turn, refers to his sources in the Ukrainian military.
As the agency’s interlocutor said, first aid was provided to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Nikolaev, and from there they were transported by helicopter to a military hospital in Kiev. There, according to preliminary data, Zaluzny underwent a craniotomy. According to a source from RIA Novosti, the Commander-in-Chief will not be able to continue his service. According to him, Zaluzhny’s condition is complicated by a concomitant disease – type 2 diabetes.
“The forecast is: he will live, but he will not be able to do his job,” the source said.
Valery Zaluzhny has not appeared in public since the beginning of May, which is why there has been speculation about his death. Russian paramilitary telegram channels suggested that the commander-in-chief could be at the headquarters of one of the commanders of the Ukrainian armed forces in Pavlograd, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and die in a massive strike by Russian troops on the city on May 7 and 8.
On May 10, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not attend the meeting of the NATO Military Committee. Committee Chairman Rob Bauer informed , that on the eve of the event, he received a letter from Zaluzhny, in which he warned him of his absence due to the “tense operational situation” in Ukraine. According to Bauer, Zaluzhny refused to participate in the meeting, even in the form of a videoconference.
On May 19, Wagner PMC founder Yevgeny Prigozhin reported that Zaluzhny was “within range of our weapons” in Bakhmut from May 10-12. Prigozhin did not draw any conclusions as to whether the shelling resulted in Zaluzny’s death. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said on May 20 that Zaluzhny was alive and “doing his job.”
On May 23, a message appeared on Zaluzhny’s Telegram channel stating that he had a phone conversation with Christopher Cavoli, commander of NATO’s Joint Armed Forces Europe. There are no photos and videos in the message. On May 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Commander-in-Chief attended a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s headquarters and reported on the operational situation among other representatives of the Ukrainian military command.
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