Russia’s top general Gerasimov shown in video, first time since Wagner mutiny
- Russia’s Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov shown on state TV giving orders
- Wagner mercenary leader sought his dismissal during a brief rebellion last month
Russia’s top general, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, was shown ordering subordinates to destroy Ukrainian missile sites in a video released on Monday, his first appearance in public since a failed June 24 mercenary mutiny.
The footage indicates that President Vladimir Putin has kept his two most powerful military men, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gerasimov, in their posts despite demands from mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to sack them over alleged incompetence in running military operations in Ukraine.
Sitting in a military command centre on a white leather seat chairing a meeting with top generals, Gerasimov, 67, asked for and then listened to a report by Viktor Afzalov, deputy in the aerospace forces to General Sergei Surovikin, who has not been since in public since the mutiny.
The defence ministry said the footage showed Gerasimov at a meeting on Sunday. It described him as chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces and commander of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine, the positions he held before the mutiny.
Gerasimov was told that a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and on the Rostov and Kaluga regions had been thwarted on Sunday, and he was shown ordering how Russia should respond.