Valery Gerasimov has been Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces since November 2012 and First Deputy Minister of Defense. According to international investigators, he was responsible for the transfer of the Buk anti-aircraft missile system that shot down flight MH17 in 2014. In July 2026, the SBU of Ukraine made him a suspect in a criminal case for strikes on Kyiv.

This is also the same Gerasimov whose conflict with General Ivan Popov was already covered in our dossier: he is credited with the decision to remove the commander of the 58th Army after Popov's public criticism of front-line failures in the summer of 2023.

Architect of the Hybrid Warfare Doctrine

Gerasimov is often called the author of the so-called 'Gerasimov Doctrine' — a concept of hybrid warfare combining military and non-military methods of pressure. Since January 2023, he has personally led the joint grouping of Russian forces in Ukraine, concentrating operational command of the entire war in his hands.

MH17: The Buk They Couldn't Not Know About

On July 17, 2014, a Boeing 777 operating as flight MH17 was shot down over Donbas by a missile from a Russian Buk complex, killing 298 people. The investigative group Bellingcat and the Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) established the transfer route of the specific launcher from Russia and back.

Bellingcat's reports indicate that the decision to transfer equipment of this level was made at the highest echelons of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Among those who, according to investigators, could not have been unaware of the Buk transfer, are Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his first deputies, including Valery Gerasimov.

Already in April 2014, before the MH17 catastrophe, Gerasimov was included in the European Union's sanctions list, and in May, Canada's: both measures were related to the role of the Russian military in the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas.

Ideologue of the War in Donbas — According to Ukrainian Investigation

In August 2015, Ukraine's military prosecutor's office named Gerasimov the main ideologue of the war in Donbas, and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced suspicion against him for organizing, preparing, and unleashing armed conflict. Bellingcat also attributes Gerasimov to the Russian military officials responsible for deploying troops along the border with Ukraine in 2021–2022 and for the lack of de-escalation at that stage.

New Criminal Case: Strike on Kyiv

On July 3, 2026, the SBU and the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced the opening of criminal proceedings regarding Gerasimov's war crimes. According to the investigation, he is involved in organizing massive missile and air strikes on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, including the aerial attack on Kyiv and the region on July 2, 2026, which claimed dozens of lives.

The investigation believes that strikes using Kh-type missiles, Kinzhal, Kalibr, Iskander, Zircon, and Shahed/Geran-type attack drones against civilian targets are planned and executed on Gerasimov's orders. The case is being investigated under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — violation of the laws and customs of war.

Real Estate Unexplained by Salary

In July 2019, the Current Time TV channel (a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty project), citing its own investigation, reported that Gerasimov's family owns real estate in Moscow and the Moscow region worth 100–150 million rubles. The Russian Ministry of Defense refused to comment on the source of funds for these properties.

Gerasimov's official declaration for 2017, available in the Declarator.org database, indicates an income of 5.9 million rubles and 3046 m² of real estate — notably more modest than many figures in our previous dossiers, such as Timur Ivanov or Ruslan Tsalikov. The discrepancy between declared income and the value of the discovered real estate remains without official explanation.

Some Ukrainian sources have also published data on the employment of Gerasimov's relatives in positions within the General Staff and GRU structures through patronage — these details are less verifiable and rely on isolated publications, so we present them as assertions rather than established facts.

The Same General Who Removed Popov

In our material on General Ivan Popov, we already mentioned: Popov's supporters linked his criminal prosecution to a conflict with the Chief of the General Staff — the very person who, according to several sources, ordered Popov's removal from command of the 58th Army after his public criticism of the lack of counter-battery warfare and intelligence on the front in the summer of 2023.

There is still no direct documentary confirmation of this connection. However, in Gerasimov's biography, this is not the only episode where decisions attributed to him lead to others' convictions — while he himself remains in his post throughout the war.

In Conclusion

Over twelve years at the helm of the General Staff, Gerasimov has gone from being a suspect in the transfer of an anti-aircraft complex that shot down a civilian aircraft to a defendant in a Ukrainian case concerning daily strikes on Ukrainian cities — and all this time he has remained in his post, not in the dock.

International sanctions have lasted for over ten years. Criminal cases in Ukraine are accumulating. The only thing that has not yet been answered is a simple question: how did his family acquire real estate worth two to three times his declared income on an army general's official salary?