A senior Russian military intelligence officer is recovering in hospital after being shot several times in Moscow, as investigators prepare to interrogate two suspects in what appears to be the latest assassination attempt targeting Russia’s top military ranks since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, the deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, was wounded on Friday (6 February), investigators said. Russian media reported on Saturday that two suspects linked to the shooting would soon be questioned, though authorities have not confirmed whether they have been detained.
Alexeyev underwent surgery and later regained consciousness, but remains under medical supervision, according to the newspaper Kommersant.
Alexeyev’s boss, Igor Kostyukov, has been leading Russia’s delegation in negotiations with Ukraine in Abu Dhabi on security-related aspects of a potential peace deal.
The Moscow prosecutor’s office said Alexeyev, who was born in Soviet Ukraine, was shot several times at a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway, in northwest Moscow by an unknown assailant who fled the scene.
Kommersant reported that the attacker had been waiting for him as he left for work and that he sustained gunshot wounds to an arm, a leg and his chest during a struggle. The Kremlin said he was in serious condition.
A neighbour who gave her name as Alessandra said CCTV cameras in the building had been functioning, following unconfirmed reports that the gunman may have gained access by posing as a food delivery courier.
Peskov said Putin had been briefed and that Russia’s intelligence services were investigating. “It is clear that military commanders and high-level specialists are at risk during wartime,” he said.
Since December 2024, three other officials of the same rank as Alexeyev, lieutenant general, have been killed in or near Moscow.
The attacks have angered Russia’s influential war bloggers, prompting questions about why such senior figures have lacked adequate protection. In at least two cases, the targets were killed right outside their homes.
The head of the General Staff's army training directorate, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, was killed by a bomb placed under his car on 22 December. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the attack, saying it was intended to undermine peace efforts, though he provided no evidence. Kyiv denied any involvement.
Alexeyev was responsible for relations between the Defence Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group, led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, which fought in some of the fiercest battles in the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
Prigozhin was fiercely critical of the defence establishment and staged a mutiny in June 2023, when Alexeyev was one of the top officials sent to negotiate with him. The mutiny fizzled out and Prigozhin died in a plane crash two months later.
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