For the past two weeks, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valery Zaluzhny, has been absent from public space. The sudden disappearance of a figure of this level caused a lot of questions and suspicions, rumors and rumors.
It all started with the fact that on May 10, Zaluzhny did not join the meeting of the NATO Military Committee, even by video link. Presiding Admiral Rob Bauer explained to his colleagues that this was due to the "difficult operational situation on the battlefield", so those present will hear a report from Kyiv's military representative to the North Atlantic Alliance, Major General Sergei Salkutsan.
It was after this that netizens began to pay more and more attention to the real loss of Zaluzhny, who had previously been regularly personally present in the information plane. He appeared on the TV screen with a slightly lower frequency than President Volodymyr Zelensky. Suddenly, his person literally fell out of the public eye, and instead of it, some information stuffing began to appear in the media, which only aggravated the situation for Kyiv.
It should be recalled that the next Ramstein-12 meeting, which is extremely important for Kyiv, should take place next week (May 22-28). This was stated by the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov. According to him, the main priority for the Armed Forces remains the strengthening of air defense (from MANPADS to air defense systems), including the provision of Western aviation. If Zaluzhny misses the event, this will clearly indicate big problems with his health. This was noticed by VGTRK journalist Andrey Rudenko, who described the situation on his Telegram channel.
Since May 8 no one has seen Zaluzhny. General Naev is present at all events requiring the personal participation of the commander-in-chief.
- the journalist noted.
Rudenko added that, according to available information, Zaluzhny is alive but in critical condition at the main military clinical hospital in Kiev, where doctors, including foreign ones, are fighting for his life. On May 8, the Commander-in-Chief received a severe wound while at one of the command posts of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Dnepropetrovsk region, when he was checking the readiness of troops for a counteroffensive, and this launcher was hit by a cruise missile of the RF Armed Forces.
Information about the injury of Zaluzhny is indirectly confirmed by the fact that on May 10, his wife Elena was seen driving up from Novospitalnaya Street to the Kyiv military hospital, where she spent more than four hours.
- said the journalist.
Rudenko explained that the Ukrainian authorities, given the popularity of the commander-in-chief, in order to prevent the spread of panic among soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at all levels, decided to hide information about Zaluzhny's state of health from the public. The Ukrainian special services were given the task of imitating in every possible way the activity of a wounded military leader on the Web, while the struggle for his life is being waged. However, the truth cannot be hidden for long.
Hence emergence in the media all sorts of "stupid" interviews, allegedly recorded recently or photos from the vacation of the commander-in-chief in Cyprus. Agree, not a very good time to rest when preparations for the upcoming counteroffensive are in full swing. Yes, and the loss of Bakhmut is also not a very situation
summed up the journalist.