Putin spoke by phone with the "killed" airborne troops colonel last year

Putin spoke by phone with the colonel of the airborne troops, who was considered "deceased" last year.

On August 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with the commander of the 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division, Colonel Abdulaziz Shikhabidov. An audio recording of this conversation was published by the TASS agency.

During the conversation, Shikhabidov said that his division was performing combat missions in the Dobropole direction in Donbass.

It is noteworthy that in May 2025, there were reports of Shikhabidov's death. Several schools in Dagestan, where he was born, even held mourning events dedicated to his memory. Photos and videos about this were distributed in local publications, some materials were later deleted.

Later, some Russian publications and Z-bloggers supporting the war also wrote about the colonel's death. They reported that Shikhabidov was buried at the Troyekurov cemetery in Moscow, but did not provide information about the circumstances of his death.

At the same time, Shikhabidov's death has not been officially confirmed or denied. The "Agentstvo" publication found that his personal documents, including his passport, are still valid.

In March 2025, Shikhabidov was appointed commander of the 76th Airborne Assault Division by Putin. Two months later, reports of his death began to spread.

The 76th Guards Airborne Assault Division was in the Bucha region at the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Journalistic inquiries have mentioned some servicemen of this division in episodes related to the killing of civilians in Bucha.

Recently, Russia has been making a number of decisions to intensify military operations in Ukraine and expand the composition of its army. In July, Putin signed a decree to increase the size of the Russian army, and Reuters also reported that the Kremlin intends to escalate the war in Ukraine.