Adviser to Ukraine’s President Office Arestovych confirms story by NYT on attempt to kill Russia’s General Staff Head Gerasimov

Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Oleksiy Arestovych has confirmed the story by The New York Times on Ukraine trying to assassinate the Head of Russia’s General Staff Valery Gerasimov.

“Let’s reveal a terrible secret. Gerasimov was in [the city of] Izium, and we fired at Gerasimov. This did happen,” Arestovych said during an appearance on YouTube channel Feygin Live.

According to the adviser, Gerasimov was in Izium, Kharkiv region, in April-May. Arestovych said that Ukraine’s Armed Forces “covered the headquarters” where Gerasimov was.

“Even without him, a lot of senior officers were killed there. But he managed to depart a little earlier — we didn’t make it in time [to kill him],” he added.

The New York Times previously published a story on Russia’s failures during the full-scale war with Ukraine. In particular, it says that the US intelligence found out about Gerasimov’s planned trip to the front line but kept the information from Ukrainians.

“Killing General Gerasimov could sharply escalate the conflict, officials said, and while the Americans were committed to helping Ukraine, they didn’t want to set off a war between the United States and Russia,” the NYT investigation reads.

Eventually, Ukraine learnt about Gerasimov’s trip anyway. According to NYT, “senior American officials asked the Ukrainians to call off the attack”.

Ukrainian servicemen told Americans that their message had arrived too late and they had already begun the attack on Gerasimov’ position. According to official information, dozens of Russians were killed in the attack, however, Gerasimov was not among the killed.