Ukraine official claims ‘Putin double’ visited war zone

The Kremlin said Russia’s president visited troops in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions this week

Ukraine’s National Security Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov said ‘that wasn’t the real Putin’, but gave no evidence

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President Vladimir Putin visiting the headquarters of the Dniepr military grouping in the Kherson region of Ukraine. Photo: Russian Presidential Office via AFP

Published: 11:17am, 20 Apr 2023Updated: 1:40pm, 20 Apr 2023

Kyiv is casting doubt on Kremlin reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently travelled to the war zone in Ukraine again, claiming that it had been a doppelgänger instead.

“That wasn’t the real Putin,” Ukraine’s National Security Council Secretary Olexiy Danilov said on television on Wednesday, without giving evidence.

“In order to talk to the real Putin, you need to self-isolate for 10 to 14 days,” he added.

According to a statement from the Kremlin on Tuesday, the Russian president had travelled again to the war zone in Ukraine, meeting Russian troops as well as high-ranking officers.

Kremlin video showed Putin arriving by helicopter at the command post of Russian forces in southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, then flying to the headquarters of the Russian National Guard in Luhansk province, in the country’s east. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the visits took place on Monday.

This would be Putin’s second trip to the war zone since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

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