A top Russian military intelligence official was shot in his Moscow apartment building and rushed to hospital yesterday, investigators said, the latest in a series of assassination attempts Russia has blamed on Ukraine.
An unidentified gunman fired several shots at Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence arm, before fleeing the scene, the investigators said.
Alexeyev’s position meant he would have been closely involved in prosecuting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Alexeyev, 64, whose work has been recognised by President Vladimir Putin with a Hero of Russia award, was reported to be in a serious condition in hospital.
Born in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union, Alexeyev was placed under US sanctions over Russian cyber interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
The European Union imposed sanctions on him over the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in 2018.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind the assassination attempt, which he said – without citing evidence – was designed to sabotage peace talks.
Since the start of the war in 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for assassinating several senior Russian officers, some of whom have appeared on a public list of Ukraine’s enemies.
&uuid=(email))