Vitaly Gerasimov | |
---|---|
Native name | Виталий Петрович Герасимов |
Birth name | Vitaly Pyetrovich Gerasimov |
Born | (1977-07-09)9 July 1977 Kazan, Tatar ASSR, Russian SFSR, USSR |
Allegiance | Russia |
Service/ | Russian Ground Forces |
Years of service | 1995–present |
Rank | Major general |
Commands held | Chief of Staff, 41st Combined Arms Army |
Battles/wars |
Vitaly Petrovich Gerasimov (Russian: Виталий Петрович Герасимов; born 9 July 1977[1]) is a Russian Ground Forces major general (one-star rank), the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.
On 7 March 2022, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence announced that Gerasimov was killed in Kharkiv Oblast during the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[2][3] but Gerasimov was confirmed to be alive by BBC Russian when he was awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky on 23 May 2022.[4][5]
Vitaly Petrovich Gerasimov was born on 9 July 1977 in Kazan.[6] Gerasimov graduated from the Kazan Higher Tank Command School in 1999 and from the Combined Arms Academy of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in 2007.[1][7]
Gerasimov fought in the Second Chechen War (1999–2000). From 2007 to 2010, he commanded a motor-rifle battalion in the North Caucasus Military District. In October 2013, as a colonel, he was assigned as commander of the 15th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade (Peacekeeping).[6]
He was awarded campaign medals for participating in the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the Russian military operation in Syria (from 2015). [2][8] In June 2016, he was promoted to the rank of major-general.[9]
Gerasimov was claimed by Ukrainian authorities to have been killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 7 March 2022 near Kharkiv, along with several other senior Russian officials.[2][10][11] The Ukrainian defence ministry offered no proof, and US officials and CNN were not able to verify the claim.[12] The Netherlands-based open-source intelligence (OSINT) fact-checking group Bellingcat said it had confirmed the death by accessing a Ukrainian intercept 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 the Order of Alexander Nevsky on 23 May.[14][15]