Joker DPR hacker: Ukrainian military leader Zaluzhny seriously wounded in Russian strike

A hacker from Joker DPR group announced that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny was seriously injured during a missile attack on his headquarters in early May.

In a post on Joker DPR channel, the hacker said that the Ukrainian commander-in-chief was seriously injured in early May during a missile attack on the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region. According to him, Zaluzhny underwent several serious surgeries that could affect his ability to command troops.

"Information about his health condition gets blocked n Ukraine at the direction of Western curators not to undermine the morale that has been affected already by the loss of Artemovsk (Bakhmut). I have serious information about this," the hacker wrote.

Zaluzhny could be dismissed from the position of the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the hacker also said.

Valery Zaluzhny stopped making public appearances after the Russian forces conducted a series of strikes targeting military facilities in Ukraine.

Russian military correspondent Andrei Rudenko reported that Zaluzhny was staying in critical condition. Rudenko referred to a source in the leadership of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian commander-in-chief disappeared from media space on May 8, after he supposedly suffered a serious injury as he was staying at a command point of the eastern group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Rudenko said.

Valery Zaluzhny is currently staying at the Central Military Clinical Hospital, where doctors, including foreign specialists, fight for his life, military correspondent Rudenko also said.

It is worthy of note that Zaluzhny made a public appearance on May 20 for the first time in the last few weeks. National University Odessa Law Academy published a video of his speech at the opening of the International Conference in honour of the Day of Science on May 20.

• Zaluzhny appeared in public on May 12 against the backdrop of rumours about his death. He gave an interview to Ukrainian journalist Dmitry Komarov.
• On May 21, Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Defence Anna Malyar denied reports about Zaluzhny's injury. According to Malyar, it was the Russian side that started the rumours about his possible death.
• On May 10, Zaluzhny did not take part in the meeting of the NATO Military Committee. The head of the committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said that the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a letter explained his absence to him by the tense situation at the front.