Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Social media users began asking questions regarding the whereregardings of Mr. Gerasimov, who is in charge of Russia’s war operations in Ukraine, on January 4 following Kiev said it had attacked a military command post. of Russia near Sevastopol and a military unit near the city of Yevpatoria.
Unverified rumors regarding Mr. Gerasimov being killed in Crimea began spreading following user , (Valery) Gerasimov, who was at the command post near Sevastopol at the time of the attack, was killed in the attack on Crimea”. However, this notice was later removed.
Although there is no concrete evidence that Gerasimov was killed in the Crimea attack, some have questioned the Kremlin’s silence on the issue, two weeks following the incident.
State news agency RIA Novosti reported that Gerasimov was last seen in public on December 29 when he was photographed presenting state awards to outstanding soldiers during the seizure of Marinka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. .
Since then, he has not been quoted or mentioned by state media, nor has he appeared in public.
In an editorial titled “Where is General Gerasimov and why does it matter?” published last Sunday in the Kyiv Post, retired US Army Colonel Jonathan Sweet and former economist Mark Toth wrote that although it is suspected that Gerasimov is dead, “the persistent absence His public statements and Moscow’s ‘radio silence’ to date on his condition” intrigue many.
It was “strange” that the Kremlin did not respond to rumors that he was killed in Crimea, the authors write, since “the Kremlin denied the death of commander Admiral Viktor Sokolov immediately following the launch of the Storm missile Shadow attacks the Black Sea Fleet Headquarters”on September 22, 2023”.
Last year, when Gerasimov was not seen for weeks following the failed mutiny led by the late Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin on June 24, 2023, similar rumors swirled regarding his whereregardings. general, with some speculation as to whether he would be dismissed.
The Kremlin appeared to quickly quash those rumors, releasing a video showing him on duty in Ukraine just a week following the rumors began.
Jaanika Merilo, an Estonian-Ukrainian tech innovator and reformer, wrote on X earlier this month that she didn’t think Gerasimov was dead, “despite rumors or wishful thinking.”
“Gerasimov had a ‘habit’ of getting lost from time to time. In the summer, it was rumored that he had been killed or at least injured. There is no evidence of that. After Prigozhin’s coup, he disappears for weeks then reappears. There is no particular reason to think why he doesn’t reappear now. Remember, this is information warfare and is generally just fog war blindness”, commented Jaanika Merilo.
