A senior Russian military official was shot in Moscow and has been hospitalized, authorities said early Friday, in the latest attack on the country’s top military brass.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, a deputy chief of Russian military intelligence, was shot several times by an unknown assailant in a residential building in the northwest of the capital, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.
The alleged shooter fled from the scene, the statement said.
Investigators have opened a criminal case, and are speaking with eyewitnesses and reviewing surveillance footage, it added.
The statement did not detail Alekseyev’s condition or specify who may be behind the attack.
Alekseyev played a prominent role during the mutiny by mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in the summer of 2023. He was filmed speaking to Prigozhin and later recorded a video calling the uprising a stab in the back of President Vladimir Putin and an attempted coup.
Alekseyev was awarded the Hero of Russia award in 2017, according to state media agency Ria.
The shooting comes a day after the latest trilateral peace talks in Abu Dhabi between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia, whose delegation is led by the chief of military intelligence, Adm. Igor Kostyukov.
After the talks, Washington and Moscow announced that they had agreed to reestablish high level military-to-military dialogue, which was suspended in 2021.
The shooting of Alekseyev is the latest in a spate of attacks against senior military figures inside Russia, many of which have been blamed on Ukraine.
Just over a month ago, another high-ranking Russian military official, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, was killed by a bomb that exploded under his car in Moscow. In April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik was also killed in a car bomb in the Moscow region, which the Kremlin accused Ukraine of orchestrating. And in December 2024, Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for killing the head of Russia’s chemical, radiological and biological weapons unit, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov.
There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv on Friday to Alekseyev’s shooting.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
