Moscow’s Teacher of the Year is killed fighting in Ukraine

Gennady Starunov, winner of Moscow’s 2022 Teacher of the Year award, was killed in Ukraine. The announcement came from Mikhail Klochihin, director of Moscow’s Marshal Chuikov School, where Starunov taught civil defense. Klochihin provided no details about when, where, or how Starunov died.

According to the news outlet RBC, Starunov’s military service began in October 2022. In January 2023, Starunov was among Russia’s mobilized troops training in Belarus. Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov visited the training grounds in Belarus and presented Starunov with honors for “Youth and Professionalism.”

In late May 2025, Starunov joined a public event with Vladimir Putin, where he told the president about his Frontline Notes blog and urged Moscow to “create preparatory training” for soldiers serving in Ukraine to help them participate in competitions organized by the Kremlin’s “Russia Land of Opportunities” platform. Putin praised Starunov’s “important work” both on the battlefield and online.