MOSCOW, July 10 (AFP) - Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia's armed forces, was shown by the defense ministry listening to a report about Ukrainian missile attacks, his first appearance in public since the June 24 mutiny.

The defense ministry said the footage showed Gerasimov at a meeting on Sunday. It used his current title, chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces.

It said Russia had thwarted a Ukrainian missile attack on Crimea and the Rostov and Kaluga regions on Sunday. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.