Rumors of Vladimir Putin’s alleged body doubles have resurfaced again as observers claim the “real” Russian leader made a rare public appearance.

Putin visited what the Kremlin claimed was a frontline support post on Friday as he attempted to highlight advances in Russia’s military campaign while Ukraine gains momentum in the war. The Russian president has been accused on several occasions of using “lookalikes” to help conduct foreign engagements to keep himself safe.

But this time, observers claimed it was the “real” Putin who appeared, as they noted the “frail” leader looked “like the walking dead.” In video footage of the frontline visit, which critics have accused Putin of faking, the 73-year-old could be seen wearing military attire as he walked through a brief hallway of a space draped in camouflage netting constructed from artificial greenery.

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Putin, who seemed noticeably anxious in the footage, encountered the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces in a moment perfectly choreographed for cameras. “When you see Putin in a bunker with Gerasimov, that’s the real Putin,” one X user wrote as they shared several images from the visit.

“From yesterday, he looks like the walking dead. Skinny, frail, afraid, not the jovial, high energy one, with the bowling ball head. Rarely do we see the real one these days,” they added.”To anyone that still calls into question Ukrainian intelligence assessments saying Putin has at least four doubles, today we saw the real Putin,” they said in a second post. “Not the high-energy one with the giant head. This is the real one, underground, with Gerasimov, sickly, dying from stress, fearful.”

Others agreed that the Russian president didn’t look well. “There is a deadness to him. So much death and destruction because of his sick choices. It obviously weighs on him,” one commented.

“Eyes sunk into his head, a sure sign all is not well,” a second noted. “He is visibly ageing, never seen that much wrinkles and loses skin on him in recent times,” another wrote.

Putin’s rare public appearance comes as Ukraine continues to intensify its strikes on critical infrastructure sites in Crimea as Kyiv’s forces work to cut off the strategically important Russian-occupied peninsula in the current phase of the conflict.

The Russian leader faced brutal ridicule online as his detractors alleged the footage was shot on a “film set.”

“For the second day in a row, everyone has been laughing at this video. Yesterday, Putin, dressed in military uniform, allegedly made a rare visit to the front line, to one of the auxiliary command posts. In reality, it was a film set inside a bunker. As we can see, they have a lot of props in that bunker,” one X user wrote as they shared the video. They observed a “camouflage net was hung inside the building” and that the “flooring, lighting, and acoustics all look like those of a studio”

“I wonder how many times they rehearsed it?” the user questioned. “Deeply embarrassing moment, Russia’s Putin pretends to visit the Russia / Ukraine frontline. Footage filmed from a studio in or near Moscow,” a second X user wrote.

“Putin on the frontline, nah never! This is the most ridiculous propaganda ever. Surely even Russians can see this is a staged military sitcom?” another said.

“Putin’s latest ‘frontline visit’ is pure cinema – and not even good cinema,” someone else noted. “The Kremlin war criminal, decked out in his dress-up uniform with the big ” name tag, supposedly dropped in on an ‘auxiliary command post; near the actual fighting. Except every frame screams studio set. Camouflage netting draped across the walls like cheap theatre backdrop,” they said.

The X user continued: “Perfectly lit corridors that look nothing like the muddy, freezing holes real Russian soldiers huddle in. The acoustics are so clean you could record a podcast in there. Even the foliage-covered entrance looks assembled by set designers. This isn’t a command post. It’s a bunker turned soundstage.”