Vitaly Gerasimov | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Виталий Петрович Герасимов |
| Birth name | Vitaly Pyetrovich Gerasimov |
| Born | (1977-07-09)9 July 1977 (age 48) Kazan,Tatar ASSR, Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Russia |
| Branch | Russian Ground Forces |
| Service years | 1995–present |
| Rank | Major general |
| Commands | 41st Combined Arms Army |
| Battles / wars | |
Vitaly Petrovich Gerasimov (Russian:Виталий Петрович Герасимов; born 9 July 1977[1]) is aRussian Ground Forcesmajor general (one-star rank), the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the41st Combined Arms Army.
On 7 March 2022,Ukraine's Ministry of Defence announced that Gerasimov was killed inKharkiv Oblast during theRussian invasion of Ukraine,[2][3] but Gerasimov was confirmed to be alive by BBC Russian when he was awarded theOrder of Alexander Nevsky on 23 May 2022.[4][5]
Vitaly Petrovich Gerasimov was born on 9 July 1977 inKazan.[6] Gerasimov graduated from theKazan Higher Tank Command School in 1999 and from theCombined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2007.[1][7]
Gerasimov fought in theSecond Chechen War (1999–2000). From 2007 to 2010, he commanded a motor-rifle battalion in theNorth Caucasus Military District. In October 2013, as acolonel, he was assigned as commander of the15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade (Peacekeeping).[6]
He was awardedcampaign medals for participating in theRussian annexation of Crimea in 2014, and theRussian military operation in Syria (from 2015).[2][8] In June 2016, he was promoted to the rank ofmajor-general.[9]
Gerasimov was claimed by Ukrainian authorities to have been killed during theRussian invasion of Ukraine on 7 March 2022 nearKharkiv, along with several other senior Russian officials.[2][10][11] The Ukrainian defence ministry offered no proof, and US officials andCNN were not able to verify the claim.[12] The Netherlands-basedopen-source intelligence (OSINT)fact-checking groupBellingcat said it had confirmed the death by accessing a Ukrainianintercept of Russian communications, as well as by means of "a Russian source".[11][13]The Guardian newspaper reported on 8 March that the Ukrainian defence department "broadcast what it claimed was a conversation between two Russian FSB officers discussing the death and complaining that their secure communications were no longer functioning inside Ukraine".[8] Gerasimov was later seen alive when he was awarded theOrder of Alexander Nevsky on 23 May.[14]
Part of theRusso-Ukrainian war (2022–present) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overview |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military engagements |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| War crimes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Reactions |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Impact |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Key people |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
