Kiev 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 doppelganger 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 fighting in the regions of Kherson and Luhansk as well as high-ranking officers.
This would be Putin's second trip to the war zone since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The exact date of the troop visit was not disclosed.
The Kremlin also released a short video showing Putin getting out of a helicopter and shaking hands with uniformed men.
According to Danilov, however, the person seen in Kherson was "an ordinary double, of which there are several, as we know."
The Ukrainian security official called Putin "a frightened man," claiming that the idea that he had decided to visit the front was simply impossible.
According to Danilov, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, who had visited the contested eastern town of Avdiivka on Tuesday, was "the exact opposite" of Putin as he has repeatedly visited the war zone.
"That's the difference with bunker grandpa Putin, who will soon be scared of himself," Danilov charged.
