Such information was disseminated in social networks, in particular, on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. The reports say that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, seems to rarely appear in public space. The authors of the messages convince that Zaluznyi is actually no longer alive, or he was allegedly removed from the public space, since he “did not deserve Zelenskyi’s trust”. It is not true.

Fact-checkers of the StopFake project investigated this case and found that Valerii Zaluzhnyi is still on duty. That is, this is a conspiracy theory of Russian propagandists. Recently, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar also refuted this information and said that Valerii Zaluzhnyi was “on the spot”, and all the fakes in relation to the death of the commander in chief were a Russian propaganda stuffing.

By spreading this fake, propagandists seek to demoralize Ukrainians and show them that “there is no one to protect peaceful Ukrainians anymore”. Thus, propagandists sow panic among Ukrainians.

Let us remind you that we recently refuted similar fakes regarding the death of the military leadership. This was one of the cases about the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, who, according to Russian propaganda, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut.