The Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Valery Gerasimov, was shown in a video released on Monday ordering the destruction of Ukrainian missile sites.
It is, according to Reuters, his first public appearance since 24 June, when a clash between Russian army leaders and mercenaries of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner paramilitary group escalated.
The video shows Russian President Vladimir Putin retaining his two most powerful military men, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Gerasimov, despite Prigozhin’s demands that they be removed over their alleged incompetence in running military operations in Ukraine.
The video also shows Gerasimov at the military command centre meeting with top generals.
The defence ministry said the meeting took place on 9 July and that Gerasimov was informed that a Ukrainian missile strike on Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, had been thwarted.
Then, according to Reuters, he asked for the identification of “storage sites and launch positions of Ukrainian weapons in order to “plan a pre-emptive strike”./RSE/
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