Valery Gerasimov

On 21 April Gerasimov said Russia had "fully completed" the occupation of Luhansk Oblast and had seized 1,700 square kilometres in 2026. ISW verified 340 square kilometres, and a net Russian loss since 1 March. It was his fourth such Luhansk claim.

The pattern held into the summer. On 18 July he presented captures in Donetsk Oblast, including Dobropillia; ISW observed no sign that Russian troops had entered the five named settlements, and recorded no confirmed change of hands by either side between 13 and 19 July. ISW did not geolocate Russian troops elsewhere; it simply found nothing to support Gerasimov's 18 July claim. By 22 July it judged the roughly 1,000km front essentially static, with Kostiantynivka still Russia's unmet main objective.

At 22:00 Moscow time on 9 April the Kremlin decreed a 32-hour Orthodox Easter ceasefire, from 16:00 on 11 April to the end of 12 April. Gerasimov and Defence Minister Andrei Belousov were ordered to halt combat on all fronts.

The order showed the chain of command running from Putin to the General Staff with no negotiated text behind it. Ukraine rejected the truce, and Dnipropetrovsk's governor reported 30 Russian strikes on 10 April before it began. When it lapsed, Ukraine's General Staff logged 10,721 Russian violations, against 1,971 Ukrainian ones claimed by Moscow. The episode tested whether Gerasimov's forces would hold fire on command; the competing tallies left that question open.