Adam Delimkhanov commanded Chechen forces during the invasion of Ukraine last year
A senior Chechen commander and member of the Russian parliament was reported to have been wounded in Ukraine, though colleagues were quick to say he was alive and well.
Adam Delimkhanov is a close ally of the notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whom he initially described as “incommunicado”.
He appealed to the Ukrainian secret service to help “find my dear brother.”
Chechen paramilitaries have joined Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
The missing deputy had commanded Chechen forces in 2022, as Russia fought for months to capture the Ukrainian port of Mariupol.
Earlier this week, the missing deputy said he met with the head of Russia’s Belgorod border region and promised to help protect the region from attack. Belgorod has been the target of a series of cross-border raids from Ukraine in recent weeks.
But his whereabouts on Wednesday was a mystery.
He is “alive but injured”, Russia’s official military TV channel Zvezda reported, citing information from the lower house of the Russian parliament.
Zvezda said the report denied some social media reports of his death. Ukrainian sources indicated an unconfirmed attack on the Chechen paramilitary group Akhmat in the port city of Primorsk, a long distance from the front line in the southern Zaporizhia region.
Ramzan Kadyrov then offered a large reward for helping him find his “dear brother”, even going so far as to ask the Ukrainian secret service for help.
However, Russian officials have since sought to quell reports that a high-ranking commander had been injured.
His colleague in Parliament Dmitry Kuznetsov quoted Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin as saying he had just spoken to Adam Delimkhanov and that he was “alive and well”.
Hours later, the Chechen leader retracted his earlier comments, claiming his close ally was “unharmed” and accusing the Ukrainians of lying.
“I knew this from the beginning of the injection of false news, but I decided to show everyone, especially the Ukrainians, to what degree their media had sunk,” he said.
He posted a video with his comments that showed the two men with several of his aides in front of a map, but BBC Verify found a number of inconsistencies in the clip that suggested it may have been manipulated.
Some of the Chechen leader’s vocal sounds were out of sync with his lip movements and some military analysts have suggested the map dates back to last year.
Delimkhanov sent the message debunking rumors surrounding his health to his half-million followers on social media, and then on Thursday retweeted the Chechen leader’s video.
However, the injuries reported by the deputy prompted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov to say he was following the events with great concern and awaiting an explanation of what happened.
The Kremlin has so far declined to comment on the fate of another senior military figure, Major General Sergei Goryachev, who was reportedly killed in a missile attack on Monday.
The incident was widely reported in the Russian media, citing the famous military blogger Yuri Kotenok, but without official confirmation.
The installed Russian official, Vladimir Rogov, appeared to corroborate the report by offering his condolences to the general’s family and friends.
A number of Russian generals have been killed since the start of the overall invasion, but if confirmed, Goryachev is believed to be the first such death in a year.
Additional reporting by Olga Robinson.