This thesis was spread on telegram channels and Russian media broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Allegedly, Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi was seriously injured and had an operation. Telegram channels write that no one except the Office of the President sees him, and “one can be skeptical about this information, but publicly Zaluzhnyi has not appeared in public for a long time, which only reinforces the rumors that everything is not all right with him”. It's fake.

Information about the serious injury of Valerii Zaluzhnyi has no evidence, because this is a conspiracy theory of Russian propagandists. The “death” of the Commander-in-Chief has been repeatedly refuted by Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Maliar. Also, on May 24, 2023, Volodymyr Zelenskyi held a meeting of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, after which he noted in his telegram that “the Commander-in-Chief, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, the commanders of the Khortytsia and Tavria United strategic grouping of troops reported on operational information”. The presence of Zaluzhnyi at Headquarters was also confirmed by NSDC Secretary Oleksii Danilov, he wrote about it on Twitter.

On May 25, Colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, blogger and journalist Anatolii Shtefan “Stirlitz” published a video with Valerii Zaluzhnyi. In the video, Shtefan says: “Finally, on May 25, I want an open terrible secret, a very terrible secret about the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, and then the camera is moved to the side where Valerii Zaluzhnyi is sitting at the table. The Commander-in-Chief thanked all Ukrainians and said: “Together we will definitely win and not only today”.

By spreading the narrative about the elimination of Ukrainian commanders, Russian propagandists are trying to sow panic among the Ukrainian population. Allegedly, no one will protect the Ukrainians without the military leadership. Also, these narratives should demoralize the Ukrainian military and encourage the Russian occupiers. Earlier, Detector Media denied the fake that the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii  Zaluzhnyi was allegedly killed, and the commander of the territorial defense units, Ihor Tantsiura, was allegedly killed in Bakhmut.