Vladimir Putin PULLS OUT Of Annual Ice Hockey Game, Creating Further Concern Over Russian Leader's Faltering Health

Vladimir Putin has created renewed concern around his allegedly deteriorating health after the Russian leader abruptly pulled out of an annual ice hockey game this week, RadarOnline.com has learned.

Putin’s absence from the Night Hockey League, an amateur ice hockey league the Russian president himself created in 2011, marks just the latest high-profile event the 70-year-old struggling leader dropped out of at the last minute in recent weeks.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed Putin would not be in attendance at the annual hockey event on Wednesday.

The gala match, which Putin usually participates in, has taken place this time of the year since the league’s inception more than a decade ago. It marks Putin's first absence from the event since 2011.

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Putin’s drop out of the match comes shortly after the Russian strongman also abruptly canceled an annual end-of-year press conference that was previously scheduled to take place on Monday.

The conference, which would have marked Putin’s final conference of the year and sees upwards of 500 journalists from Russia and around the world in attendance, was reportedly canceled due to growing health and security concerns.

Besides the recently canceled hockey match and press conference, Putin also ditched his annual Direct Line with Vladimir Putin – another event in which Russian citizens call in to ask the Russian president questions.

While sources believe Putin has canceled these events as a result of growing health and security concerns, other critics believe the moves were made to avoid confrontation over the leader’s failing war efforts in Ukraine.

Although the Russo-Ukrainian war has been raging for nearly ten months, Putin recently acknowledged the “special military operation” will take longer than anticipated.

Russian troops in Ukraine were also recently forced to retreat from a series of previously occupied strategic strongholds in the neighboring nation, marking a major blow to Putin and the Kremlin’s already failing offensives.

Russian insiders have indicated Putin underwent emergency colon surgery over the weekend after an alleged fall in his Moscow home earlier this month, suggesting his absence from both the end-of-year press conference and annual hockey match was a result of the emergency procedure.

“Putin will have a simple surgical operation,” said one source regarding his alleged emergency procedure last week.

“The fall from the stairs last week, which resulted in a bruised tailbone, did not go unnoticed and caused new problems not directly related to the bruise,” the source added regarding the fall in which Putin “involuntarily defecated” himself as a result of the “cancer affecting his stomach and bowels.”