In the past few hours, both on Telegram and among the various Russian media, rumors of the possible injury of Valeriy Zaluzhny. The latter is the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, the one who moves the dense network of soldiers and brigades scattered among the various war fronts. Zaluzhny, in particular, would have been seriously injured and unable to continue carrying out his role. But at the moment there are no confirmations.
The Russian version
The news has begun to spread in the last few hours, but the facts would go back at least to half May. On Ria Novosti some details have been specified. Zaluzhny would have been hit by a Russian bomb fired at the oblast of Kherson. This is the area regained by the Ukrainians last October. A strategic but also symbolic area: for several months, the capital of the oblast was the first and only major Ukrainian city to fall into Russian hands. The return of the Kiev troops, on the contrary, showed Moscow’s difficulties in the field.
For this reason, the city and the entire surrounding province have been constantly targeted for months. Raids, bombings, drone strikes and artillery strikes, Kherson is one of the most targeted areas. In one of these attacks, the Ukrainian commander-in-chief was wounded a few days ago. The episode, according to reports on Ria Novosti, would have taken place in the village of Posad-Pokrovskoye. It is a small town not far from Kherson and the front line.
Zaluzhny, according to news arriving from Moscow and intercepted by Russian intelligence, would have suffered very serious injuries. So much so as to require the transfer of the general to Mykolaiv and, subsequently, to the military hospital in Kiev. That is the best equipped hospital in Ukraine available to the army. Russian sources have specified that the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army would not be in danger of life. But he may have suffered such injuries serious that he can never go back to doing his job. “The conditions of the commander in chief are complicated by a previous illness – we read – he will live, but he will not be able to do his job”.
The denials of Kiev
The shoal has arrived by return of post denial by the Ukrainian authorities. “What the Russians wrote is simply a lie”, reads a note from Spravdi, the Ukrainian center for strategic communications. The news would therefore be without foundation. “The Kremlin fakes have launched another “flash” – continues the note – that, following a Russian missile attack, the commander Valery Zaluzhny was seriously injured. It is a fake and there is the he confirms video”.
The video referred to was posted by Spravdi himself on his Telegram channel. In the images, Zaluzhny can be seen speaking via videoconference during an event organized within the University of Odessa. The video dates back, according to the center for strategic communications, to last May 20th. And therefore it would deny the hypothesis of an injury to the commander which occurred shortly after mid-month.
