Originally the commander of a reconnaissance platoon, Goryachev subsequently served as an assistant chief of reconnaissance of a regiment and later served as deputy commander of a reconnaissance company, a reconnaissance company commander and a parachute battalion commander.[4] From 2011 to 2013, he was deputy commander of a separate motorized rifle brigade of the combined arms army of the Western Military District, one of Russia's operational commands.[4] In March 2013, he was appointed head of the Operational Group of Russian Forces in Transnistria.[5] Since 14 November 2018[6] (met personnel on 21 November 2018), he was made commander of the Russian 201st Military Base in Tajikistan, awarding the tankers of the 201st Russian military base with departmental medals.[7]
In 2022, Goryachev was replaced as the 201st Base by Colonel Evgeny Kovylin[8] and served in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Over the course of the invasion and subsequent war, Goryachev was the commander of the 5th Separate Tank Brigade, and was promoted to Army Chief of Staff.[2] A posting on the Telegram messaging service reported that Goryachev and several other senior officers had been killed on 12 June 2023 in an attack, reportedly by a Storm Shadow missile launched by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on positions of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast.[2][9] On 16 June 2023, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence assessed that reporting on Goryachev's death was almost certainly accurate and that it is possible that he was acting as an Army commander at the time of his death.[10]
