Vladimir Putin using body doubles to hide health challenges? ‘It’s a fact'

Vladimir Putin Health: Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency, made the remarks in an interview.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has body doubles who stand in for the 70-year-old at certain events, a Ukrainian intelligence official claimed. Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence agency, made the remarks in an interview with online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda amid rumours that Vladimir Putin's health is deteriorating.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is seen. (Reuters)

The Kremlin has earlier rejected the allegations. "Putin uses doubles," Andriy Yusov said, adding, “This is a fact that is based both on operative intelligence and on the assessments of physiognomists and many other specialists.”

Citing an unannounced visit Vladimir Putin made to Ukraine's occupied regions in March, the official said, “His visits to the occupied south are a total fake, one organized rather poorly and hastily. There was a considerable difference both in 'Putin's' behavior and his looks.”

“He would never sit in that car and would never dress like that. He would never talk to alleged local residents, as we know that access to the real Putin in the Kremlin is restricted even for his own entourage—a meters-long table that becomes longer and longer, mandatory quarantines people undergo before meeting him," he continued.

In August 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Major General Kyrylo Budanov had claimed that Vladimir Putin's ears looked different in several of his public appearances.

"The picture, let's say, of the ears, is different. And it's like a fingerprint, each person's ear picture is unique. It cannot be repeated," Kyrylo Budanov had said, without offering evidence to back his allegations.

"They [Putin's body doubles] have different habits, different mannerisms, different gaits, sometimes even different heights if you look closely," he further said.