Chief of Ukraine's armed forces, General Valery Zaluzhny, was severely injured in a Russian missile strike in early May, Sputnik reported on Wednesday.

A representative of a Russian security agency told the news agency, citing Urakinain sources, that "first aid was provided Zaluzhny in Nikolayev in order to stop the bleeding. He had a cranial trepanation done in the Kiev military hospital."
 
Zaluzhny's type II diabetes has made matters complicated, the source added.

Read more: Russian forces destroy 200 tons of Ukrainian ammo on train: MoD
 
"The forecast is that he will live, but he will not be able to do his job."

Ukraine's chief staff has not made a public appearance since the strike earlier this month.
 
The Ukrainian top general stopped appearing in public after a Russian missile strike on a number of military objects.

His injury remained unannounced under instructions of Western countries to Kiev, Sputnik added, citing sources in the DPR. The secrecy aims to preserve morale, especially after the fall of Bakhmut under Russian control, the outlet said.

On May 20, the head of the Russian private military company Wagner Group announced that the city Bakhmut, also known as Artyomvsk, "was completely taken."

"We completely took the whole city, from house to house," Yevgeny Prigozhin said then.

Read more: 'Nothing left': Zelensky acknowledges loss of Bakhmut