Ukraine claims Putin was not at the front

The authorities in Ukraine claim that it was not Vladimir Putin who visited the front at Kherson and Luhansk this week, but a “double/look-alike”.

It was not the real Putin, said Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Security Council, in a television broadcast on Wednesday.

The Russian government released a video this week that appears to show Putin greeting soldiers in the Kherson and Luhansk regions. This is said to have been his second visit to the front since the invasion of Ukraine.

Danilov believes it was instead a “stand-in” that was in Eastern Ukraine. To meet the real Putin, you must first go into quarantine for at least ten days, according to the head of the Ukrainian Security Council.

He describes Putin as a “bunker grandfather” and a “scared man”.

Russian authorities have not commented on Danilov’s claim, and it has not been confirmed by other sources. (NTB)