As of: January 29, 2024, 4:12 p.m
By: Christoph Elzer
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Press
Split
The commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in the war against Ukraine, General Valeriy Gerasimov, has not been seen for exactly a month.
Rumors about his death are circulating.
Moscow – Valeriy Gerasimov as Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu are the two highest-ranking military officials in Putin's regime.
It is extremely unusual that such a high-ranking and therefore exposed personality is neither seen nor heard from for a month.
In Gerasimov's case, his last sign of life was actually exactly 31 days old on Monday (January 29, 2024).
On December 29, 2023, General Gerasimov, in his last documented appearance, awarded several Russian soldiers Medals of Honor for their achievements in the battle for the town of Marinka in the Donetsk Region.
After that, Gerasimov's trail is lost, although the fighting in Ukraine in recent weeks has been fierce and particularly costly for Russia.
Gerasimov even stayed away from the celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of St. Petersburg from the Nazi blockade - in contrast to ruler Vladimir Putin.
Putin's top general disappeared: where was Valeriy Gerasimov on January 4th?
There is now speculation on various Telegram channels that this could be related to January 4, 2024.
On that day, Ukraine delivered a particularly severe strike against Russian military facilities in Crimea.
The defense system of the occupied peninsula was severely damaged and Shahed drones stationed there, supplied from Iran, were destroyed.
In addition, a command post of the Russian occupation forces near Sevastopol was hit.
They are waging war in Ukraine: Moscow autocrat Vladimir Putin (left) and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
© imago/archive image
Valeriy Gerasimov is said to have been in exactly every command post at the time of the attack.
Corresponding rumors were already doing the rounds at the beginning of January.
Immediately after the rocket fire from Ukraine,
Visegrád24 reported on X (formerly Twitter) that Putin's most important general had been killed in the attack.
However, this statement could not be substantiated and several Russian war bloggers rushed to dismiss the rumor as a lie.
Expert: “Starting to believe Gerasimov might be dead”
Since then, no evidence of Gerasimov's death has emerged.
But due to the general's long absence, more and more observers are wondering whether he was perhaps fatally wounded.
So tweeted the defense expert Dr.
Jan Kallberg on January 24: "Day 26: I'm starting to think that General Gerasimov might actually be dead."
And Danish analyst Jacob Kaarsbo from Think Tank Europe told Norwegian daily
VG
: “It’s hard to say.
What suggests he might be dead is that there was an attack in Crimea where he was in early January.
On the other hand, there have been rumors in the past about the deaths of high-ranking Russian figures that turned out to be false.”
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The case of Gerasimov is reminiscent of that of the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov.
According to rumors, he was killed in a Ukrainian attack on September 25, 2023.
Russia tried to refute these rumors with two videos, but it is now doubted that the recordings were actually made after September 25th.
Because apart from the undated film snippets, the general has not been seen since that day a good four months ago.