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Russian Defense Ministry unaware of SBU search for General Staff chief

Head of the Security Service of Ukraine main investigation department earlier said that charges were brought against Gerasimov and other Russian military and they were put on the wanted list
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov TASS/Mikhail Klementiev
Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov
© TASS/Mikhail Klementiev

MOSCOW, August 5. /TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry has no information about putting on the wanted list by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) of Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov and 10 more soldiers, the ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.

Previously, head of the SBU main investigation department Grigory Ostafiychuk said that charges were brought against Gerasimov and other Russian military and they were put on the wanted list. The Russian defense spokesman said that they allegedly were staying in the territory of Ukraine last August during the events in Ilovaisk.

"We know nothing about ‘suspicion notifications’ allegedly sent by Mr G. Ostafiychuk to the Russian military servicemen. The more so we don’t understand when, where, from whom and in what form he managed to get the ‘corresponding response’ from them," Konashenkov said.

According to him, such statements by the SBU representative confirm the inadequacy of the service’s leadership. According to Konashenkov, the Russian Defence Ministry is ready to organise for the Ukrainian operative in Russia "a hearty welcome, heart-to-heart talk and a brief farewell that will stick in memory for long."

Russian authorities have repeatedly said that there are no Russian troops in Ukraine’s south-eastern region Donbass. In particular, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that "there are no Russian armed forces there, contrary to the allegations of our colleagues in Ukraine and our colleagues in Europe and Washington."