A top Russian GRU general and a military intelligence official were shot several times in a residential building by an unidentified gunman in Moscow on Friday.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was immediately hospitalised following the attack, the Russian Investigative Committee reported.
The committee said that "an as-yet-unidentified individual fired several shots at a man and fled the scene." Telegram channels Mash and Baza said that the general was shot from behind.
As of now no suspect has been identified but suspicion will likely fall on Kyiv. Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targetted dozens of Russian military officers and officials since the beginning of the war, the Guardian reported.
The general’s current condition is unknown, but he was reported to have survived the attack. Russian president Vladimir Putin is being briefed on the incident.
The investigative committe are currently working at the scene of the incident and reviewing CCTV footage, and questioning eyewitnesses. A case was opened on the grounds of an “attempted murder.”
The assassination attempt on Russian Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev took place in a 24th-floor building at 24 Volokolamskoe Shosse in Moscow. Residents of the building had reportedly long complained that the building's CCTV cameras were not working. https://t.co/oBSWPN0xAh pic.twitter.com/EOXacwkuUq
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) February 6, 2026
The shooting has come a day after Ukrainian and Russian delegations including Igor Kostyukov, met in Abu Dhabi to discuss peace. Kostyukov is Alekseyev's direct superior.
Vladimir Alekseyev is the First Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) which is the country's military intelligence agency. He has been the GRU number two since 2011.
In 2016, he was sanctioned by the US for being the mastermind behind the “malicious cyber activities” during the US presidential election the same year.
He had also been accused by the UK and EU of orchestrating the Novichok weapons attacks in Salisbury in 2018, which targeted Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
In 2019, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation by the Kremlin.
