The deputy head of Russia’s intelligence service was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officials blamed on Russia in Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was hospitalized after being shot several times by an unknown assailant in a building in the northwest of Moscow, the spokesperson of the Investigative Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, said in a statement.
He did not say who might be behind the attack on the 64-year-old, who has served as the first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence service, known as the GRU, since 2011.
He was decorated with the Hero of Russia medal for his role in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria and in June 2023 he was shown on state television talking to army chief Yevgeny Prigozhin when his Wagner Group seized military headquarters in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don during his short-lived uprising.
The shooting happened a day after Russia, Ukraine and the US concluded two days of talks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, aimed at ending the conflict in Ukraine, which has dragged on for four years. The Russian delegation was led by Alekseyev’s boss, military intelligence officer Adm. Igor Kostyukov.
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President Vladimir Putin has been informed of the attack, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who added that law enforcement must strengthen the protection of senior military officials during the conflict in Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the attack.
Asked about the shooting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it would be in the hands of law enforcement to conduct an investigation but described it as a “terrorist act” by Ukraine aimed at disrupting peace talks.
Daily newspaper Kommersant said the attacker, posing as a delivery man, shot the general twice on the floor of his building, wounding him in the foot and arm. Alekseyev tried to grab the gun and was shot in the chest again before the assailant fled, the report said.
Alekseyev, who was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, rose slowly through the ranks to lead Russian military intelligence operations in Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere.
He was punished by Washington for meddling in the 2016 US election and also faced sanctions from the UK and the European Union for his alleged role in the poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter with Novichok in Salisbury, England.
Since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for the killing of military and civilian officials in Russia. Ukraine said it was responsible for some of them.
In December, a car bomb killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Division of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.
In April, another senior Russian military officer, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the main department working in the General Staff, was killed by a bomb planted in his car parked near his building just outside of Moscow.
A Russian man who previously lived in Ukraine has pleaded guilty to the attack and said he was paid by Ukrainian security forces.
Days after Moskalik’s murder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had received a report from Ukraine’s foreign intelligence chief about the “liquidation” of Russian military officials, adding that “justice will surely come” although he did not name Moskalik.
In December 2024, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden in an electric scooter outside his building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
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