A Russian general was shot at an apartment building in Moscow on Friday and taken to hospital, officials said. The Investigative Committee quoted spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko saying “an unidentified individual fired several shots” at Vladimir Alekseyev, the deputy chief of Russian military intelligence. Petrenko did not identify a suspect or provide immediate details about Alekseyev’s condition.
A report in business daily Kommersant, cited by the Associated Press, said the attacker posed as a delivery worker and opened fire in the stairwell of Alekseyev’s apartment building, grazing his foot and arm. The report said the general struggled with the assailant, tried to seize the gun and was then shot in the chest before the attacker fled.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the incident a “terrorist act” carried out by Ukraine and said it appeared aimed at undermining recent peace talks between Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. negotiators held in Abu Dhabi. The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had been informed. Ukrainian authorities had not commented.
Alekseyev has served as deputy chief of Russian military intelligence since 2011 and led operations during Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war.
Several senior Russian military officers have been targeted since the start of the war in Ukraine. The most recent prior incident reported involved Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, who was killed by a bomb placed under his car on Dec. 22. In April 2025, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed by a car bomb near his apartment outside Moscow; a suspect was quickly arrested. Moscow has blamed Kyiv for earlier killings, and in some cases Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility—most notably the Dec. 2024 killing of Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division, when a bomb hidden on an electric scooter exploded outside his apartment building.