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A senior Russian military official was shot in an apartment building in Moscow on Friday morning and rushed to the hospital, officials said, in the latest apparent assassination attempt targeting a high-ranking figure in Russia’s armed forces.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, deputy chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff at the Russian Defense Ministry, was wounded when “an unidentified individual fired several shots” at him before fleeing the scene, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
“The victim has been hospitalised,” the agency said in a statement, adding that investigative and operational measures are underway to identify those responsible. No details were released about a suspect.
State media earlier reported that Alekseyev had been taken to the hospital following the shooting.
A career military officer, Alekseyev serves as first deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, according to publicly available biographical information. He previously led intelligence operations during Russia’s military intervention in Syria in support of then-regime leader Bashar al-Assad.
Alekseyev was also among the senior officials sent to negotiate with Wagner mercenary group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin during his brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June 2023.
Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said authorities are conducting “investigative actions and operational search measures” to determine who carried out the attack.
"Investigators and forensic experts from the Moscow Investigative Committee are currently working at the scene, reviewing CCTV footage, and interviewing eyewitnesses," she said.
Alekseyev has served as the first deputy head of the Russian General Staff’s Main Intelligence Directorate since 2011.
Several senior Russian military officials have been killed since Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in Ukraine in February 2022. Russian authorities have blamed some of the attacks on Ukraine, which has acknowledged responsibility for certain operations.
Last month, a Russian court sentenced an Uzbek national to life in prison over the 2024 killing of Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defense forces. Kirillov was killed when a booby-trapped scooter exploded as he exited an apartment building in Moscow, an attack that Kyiv said it had orchestrated.
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