This is the first time in Russian media I have read about the missile attack that killed top ranking Ukrainian and NATO officials. This is an incident that Rantburg regular Dale has insisted has happened.
[REGNUM] Someone is already talking about the fact that Zaluzhny was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities, others say that they are hiding Zaluzhny, because they realized that “the song of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been sung.” The Telegram channel of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine testifies that at least until May 9, Valery Zaluzhny was alive and legitimate. But the intrigue remains.
For several days now, rumors have been circulating about the death of the most famous Ukrainian military leader of our time - Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny. They began with the general's suspicious refusal to meet with the chiefs of the general staff of NATO member countries. Be that as it may, the warlord had not been seen in public for more than a month.
The refusal of Zaluzhny to meet with Western colleagues was announced by the head of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, during a meeting of the chiefs of the general staffs of the states of the organization.
"Yesterday I received a letter from the Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief, our friend Valery Zaluzhny, that his participation even through a video conference is impossible, given the difficult operational situation <…> We are focused on getting Valery’s assessment from his military representative… about the latest developments on the ground," Bauer said 10 May.
On the same day, news began to spread in the telegram channels that Zaluzhny had died. Many took this news with caution. She was too reminded to wishful thinking and present the audience with an informational gift by May 9th.
The authors of one of the largest military-political channels, the Rybar telegram, not trusting this message, added food for thought to the rumors:
"On May 7 and 8, one of the affected objects was the headquarters, where one of the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was located. The headquarters was located not far from the infamous crater in Pavlograd. Being faithful to the principle "lightning does not strike the same place twice”, the Ukrainian military leaders settled in the vicinity of Pavlograd, where they flew from the Russian Aerospace Forces."
The authors of the channel noted that Zaluzhny's refusal to participate in the NATO summit could (they emphasized this word) be associated with the consequences of a fire defeat.
The publication also drew attention to the fact that Zaluzhny was appointed a new deputy, which hypothetically may indicate a personnel reshuffle in the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "due to not entirely obvious facts."
Oil was added to the fire by the message of the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak .
MYSTERIOUS DOOM
On the afternoon of May 9, Yermak announced the death of one of his employees on his Telegram channel.
"Aleksei Titarenko , an employee of the president's office, was killed on the front lines of the Donetsk region . He served as chief adviser to the Directorate of Domestic and Humanitarian Policy. Condolences to family and friends! Ukraine will always remember the heroes!" wrote Yermak.
The death of such an employee of the president's office caused rumors.
No one knew how Titarenko got to the front line. If he was mobilized, the question automatically arose: why the now former (!) Freelance (!) Advisor to the head of the presidential office Aleksey Arestovich , who, as he himself claimed, had both combat experience in the Donbass and service experience in intelligence. The Western media claimed that he was one of the few who had military experience in the office of the president in the early days of the NWO.
Arestovich himself flaunted this.
"We received weapons and bulletproof vests. It was very funny, Yermak is very healthy, the body armor that they gave him did not fit on him. He is this way and that, and then - oh well, I'll be without a bulletproof vest. And then we got ready to fight. Because the saboteurs had already gone around Kyiv, we were informed <…> I was not afraid at all. I had one desire: I wanted to shoot a Russian armored vehicle so that I would not die in vain. Because the one who shot gets into Valhalla, and the one who didn’t shoot doesn’t get hit," he said in August 2022.
And now this former freelance adviser to Yermak, instead of hitting Russian tanks near Artyomovsk or somewhere else, is hitting the hearts of Ukrainian housewives. And not only: judging by the results of a survey by the Rezumkov Center and the Ilko Kucheviv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, citizens of Ukraine consider Arestovich one of the three most honest politicians and experts. 26% of respondents are sure that it was he who covered the events of the special operation "objectively and professionally."
Better than him, according to this poll, were only the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and a freelance adviser to the head of the Presidential Office Mikhail Podolyak - the latter also broadcasts not from the front, but from Kiev. It is from there that Podolyak is already threatening Europe with terrorist attacks.
In general, it is not surprising that the death of the chief consultant of one of the directorates of the OP has alerted many. And here again there were versions in specialized Russian channels:
"According to the available data, he (Aleksey Titarenko. - Approx. Aut.) was destroyed during an artillery strike on the Chasov Yar area, where high-ranking officers and several politicians of the Kiev regime were located," the telegram channel “Operation Z: Military commissars of the Russian Spring” reported.
The news about the defeat of the bunker with high-ranking officers and people from the office of the President of Ukraine, and later the statement of Admiral Bauer, even people who are not prone to conspiracy theories, made me think: so where is Zaluzny?
"I don’t know who the groom is, but Zaluzhny himself is his best man."
After the news about Zaluzhny began to spread in telegram channels, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine made a comment.
"In the Russian information field, information is being disseminated about the alleged liquidation of our commanders. Three posts per week. Everyone is alive <...> This is only an insignificant public episode from which you can understand the conditions under which our command is fighting," Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar wrote in her telegram channel on May 10 .
But the skeptics were not reassured by this statement. Photos went on.
In the evening of the same day, a former photographer, Ukrainian soldier Maxim Alekseev posted pictures of his own wedding on his social media page.
"I really wanted this moment to be made by a special person. And it happened: Valery Fedorovich agreed. Now, at the beginning of our family, there is a legendary person who is an example for me personally and, I am sure, for everyone else. And now for our family. Therefore, we are very grateful to Valery Zaluzhny for the fact that [they] agreed and made this moment truly incredible," he signed the photo, in which the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine congratulated the young.
According to Alekseev, Natalya Borisovskaya, one of the most famous female military personnel in Ukraine, helped him to realize his dream.
However, instead of calming the rumors, the photo from Alekseev’s wedding angered many Ukrainians: they criticized both the groom himself and the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Alekseev (and in the photo he was in civilian clothes) was offered to be mobilized, and Zaluzhny was criticized for preferring NATO partners to the wedding of an ordinary Ukrainian. And this despite the fact that the record with photographs began with the words: "It was not today and not yesterday, if anything."
“I must say right away that this was not yesterday, and this has nothing to do with the NATO conference. After all, many media have already shown the news, and in the comments they have already dispersed the “zrada” that he did not speak at the conference because of the wedding," Alekseev repeated in a comment to the Ukrayinska Pravda publication, noting that it was not easy.
But if General Zaluzhny is not at the wedding, then where is he? And, again, is he alive?
NOT TO MEET
Since this whole story was dispersed primarily in Telegram and only then got into the mainstream media and official comments, it would be logical to turn to the Telegram channel of Zaluzhny himself.
The channel of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine testifies that at least until May 9, Valery Zaluzhny was alive and legitimate. So, on May 7, the channel reported on his behalf about a meeting with the Inspector General of the Bundeswehr Carsten Broer, and on May 9, about the results of a Russian missile attack.
At the same time, shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine across the territory of Russia, as well as attempts at sabotage, have intensified in recent days. And the night of May 12 could have caused a heart attack in impressionable observers of what is happening in Ukraine.
On the evening of May 11, Russian military correspondents began to report on the offensive actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in several directions at once and on the accumulation of forces on the border with the Belgorod region. Later, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reassured the Russians, saying that there was no need to talk about any breakthroughs in the defensive lines.
Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Donbass: according to the DPR representative office in the JCCC, 94 strikes were carried out on this region of Russia over the past day. For comparison, over the previous day, the Armed Forces of Ukraine inflicted 33 strikes on the republic - almost three times less.
A difficult situation is also developing in Artyomovsk. The Armed Forces of Ukraine had chances for a counteroffensive in this city.
All this is happening under the talk of an imminent full-scale Ukrainian offensive.
Under such conditions, one can understand the Ukrainian commander in chief, who simply does not have time to talk with NATO partners about “everything good.” In the end, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov can say: “Buy me a flyer.”
BUT THE INTRIGUE REMAINS.
Thus, an advertising teaser for an interview with Zaluzhny, which was supposed to be released on May 12, disappeared from the YouTube channel of journalist Dmitry Komarov. At the same time, the interview itself, apparently, was recorded quite a long time ago - for the Year project. However, the channel header indicates that the interview will air at 21:30 on May 12.
Someone is already talking about the fact that Zaluzhny was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities, others say that they are hiding Zaluzhny, because they realized that “the song of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been sung.” However, in the current situation, such statements are unacceptable optimism and hatred.
In any case, the death of such a person in modern Ukraine, where journalism is essentially based on "leaks" - both controlled by Bankova and Sea Street, and uncontrolled - could hardly be hidden.
May 12, 2023
Ilya Ropshin