MOSCOW (Reuters) – Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces, was shown by the defence ministry listening to a report about Ukrainian missile attacks, his first appearance in public since the failed June 24 mutiny.
The defence ministry said the footage showed Gerasimov at a meeting on Sunday. Sitting in a military command room on a white leather seat, speaking to top generals and giving orders, including to the head of military intelligence (GRU).
The defence ministry used his current title, chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces and commander of the joint group of forces in Ukraine.
“The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Army General Valery Gerasimov, set a task to the chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate and those responsible for the command post of the combined group to organise systematic work to identify storage and training sites, as well as the launch positions of S-200 missiles and similar enemy strike weapons, and plan their preemptive defeat,” the defence ministry said.
It said Russia had thwarted a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimea and the Rostov and Kaluga regions on Sunday. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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