A senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, was rushed to hospital on Friday after being shot in Moscow, investigators said, marking the latest in a string of attacks targeting top military officials.
Alexeyev, who serves as deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, was wounded at a residential building in northwest Moscow. The Moscow prosecutor’s office said he had been shot several times by an unknown assailant who fled the scene.
His superior, GRU chief Igor Kostyukov, has been leading Russia’s delegation in negotiations, according to investigators.
Several senior Russian officers have been assassinated since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of being behind the attacks. In some instances, Ukrainian military intelligence has publicly claimed responsibility.
Since December 2024, 3 other officials holding the same rank as Alexeyev, lieutenant general, have been killed in or near Moscow.
The wave of attacks has fuelled anger among influential Russian war bloggers, who have questioned why such high-ranking officials have lacked adequate protection. In at least 2 cases, senior officers were killed outside their homes.
On December 22, the head of the General Staff’s army training directorate, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, was killed by a bomb placed under his car.
Alexeyev was known for overseeing relations between the Defence Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, which fought some of the fiercest battles in the early stages of the war in Ukraine.
Prigozhin was a vocal critic of Russia’s defence leadership and staged a brief mutiny in June 2023. Alexeyev was among the senior officials sent to negotiate with him during the crisis. The mutiny later collapsed, and Prigozhin died in a plane crash 2 months later.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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