Recently, something strange happened on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, Gerasimov, disappeared.
It stands to reason that now is the time when the war between Russia and Ukraine is being scorched, and the Russian Minister of Defense and the Chief of the General Staff are key figures, and they should appear on the ** every now and then, but the ** Chief of the General Staff has not appeared for more than a month.
Gerasimov's disappearance began on January 4 of this year, when Ukraine attacked the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet of the Navy in Crimea with missiles, causing serious losses in personnel and property.
It is said that the Russian army was holding a meeting of senior cadres in it at that time, and Gerasimov was in it, and it was since then that Gerasimov has never appeared in the public eye.
Therefore, after that incident, it was widely believed that Gerasimov was either dead or seriously injured.
However, more than a month later, just when people had forgotten a little about Gerasimov, an incident suddenly happened that pushed Gerasimov into the public eye.
A few days ago, a large Russian transport plane Il-76 was shot down over Belgorod, ** immediately said: The plane was shot down by a Ukrainian Patriot missile, and the plane was transporting more than 60 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were preparing to exchange with Ukraine.
The Ukrainian side then demanded that the bodies of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the plane be published, but the people kept delaying and did not announce it, and they also blocked the crash site as soon as possible and banned interviews.
*Although the relevant departments have also released some**, it has been pointed out that it has been edited and does not indicate that there are Ukrainian prisoners of war on the plane.
Since yesterday, there have been new developments in this incident.
A Russian military telegram group announced the news that the Il-76 transport plane shot down by Ukraine contained the remains of the chief of staff of the Russian army, General Gerasimov, the deputy chief of staff, General Burginsky, and the accompanying senior generals.
The people who went to pick up Gerasimov were originally alive, but now they must have also become corpses.
According to them, Gerasimov, known as the Smiling Boy, was seriously injured after being hit by a Ukrainian missile with a French missile on the night of January 4 this year, and was at the Rostov Military Hospital**.
After that, Moscow sent senior medical experts to consult, but the smiling boy died on January 6 after rescue efforts failed, and Gerasimov's body was stored in the morgue and kept in close silence until the crash occurred when he was transported, and it was not revealed again.
According to past experience, Russia's military telegram channel still disclosed quite a lot of facts, such as the sinking of the Moskva, the hit of the Crimean bridge, and the news of the Wagner rebellion, which were first disclosed by them, but whether what they said this time is true or not, it is not yet known.
In addition to this somewhat old news, there are some relatively new news on the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.
Yesterday, in the Russian city of Engelsk, Ukraine's intelligence services carried out an assassination of the commander of the Tu-95 strategic bomber of the Russian Air Force, Major Oleg Sergeyevich Stegachov.
Major Stegaschiov, who served in Unit 06987 at the "Engels" airbase, personally flew Tu95 aircraft, participated in missile strikes on civilian facilities in Ukraine and **.
He was attacked yesterday by Ukraine, and according to reports, the major has died.
Separately, Ukrainian drones also attacked one of the largest oil refineries in the south of the Russian company Lukoil in Volgograd yesterday, causing a fire.
According to reports, the plant has a capacity of about 14.8 million tons.
The governor of the region and the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the drone that attacked had been shot down, and that it was the fragments of the drone that fell on the factory that caused the fire.
I have to say, the fragments of the drone are a bit big.
The Russian-Ukrainian war is the first large-scale use of drones in the history of human warfare, especially at the moment, the Ukrainian side has accumulated rich experience in drone combat in the war.
In addition, Germany, the United States and other world-class UAV manufacturers have come to Ukraine to set up factories, therefore, the production and use of UAVs in Ukraine has reached a new height.
And Russia now simply does not know what it is facing. Now all strata of Ukrainian society are engaged in some form of UAV production in apartments, offices, warehouses, military bases, including teenagers, the elderly, IT personnel.
As Ukraine's missiles and drones continue to wield power on the battlefield, 20% of the ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, including the flagship, have been destroyed.
In the spring of 2022, Russia's Black Sea Fleet also had more than 70 ships, which they advertised as the "Invincible Armada." But so far, at least 13 ships of the Black Sea Fleet have been destroyed and sunk.
Even the headquarters building of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol was destroyed, and the whereabouts of the Russian Chief of the General Staff are unknown.
In addition to the leaders who cannot be found, many Russian soldiers are now missing.
In the past few days, a Russian military wife has gone online to ask for help to find her husband, Alexander. His husband, who fought on the front line in Avdiivka, was last contacted on January 7, 2024, and a week later reported missing, but did not receive any official documents.
She went to the main military hospitals in Donetsk, Luhansk, Rostov-on-Don and Moscow, but could not find him. The troops did not contact her and blocked her ** number.
On the other hand, law enforcement officers began to be ordered to carry out mass arrests at the "Way Home" event organized by the wives of soldiers, including journalists.
The soldier's wife wrote on her coat: "Bring my husband back, I've had enough." ”
* Officials are now also worried about the spread of the incident, and it is taboo to name the movement when referring to the arrests. More than 420,000 Russian soldiers serve in Ukraine, many of whom are not rotated. The news of the arrest of the soldier's wife has reached the front line, and some Russian soldiers have written to ** expressing their anger.
It seems that the next step in this war of ** people is even more difficult to fight.