A gunman shot Russian military intelligence deputy chief Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev multiple times in a Moscow apartment building on Thursday, leaving him hospitalized in serious condition in the latest assassination attempt against a senior Russian military figure.
The 64-year-old general was reportedly ambushed in the stairwell of his building on Volokolamskoye Highway in northwestern Moscow after an attacker posing as a delivery person opened fire.
Russian publication Kommersant reported that Alekseyev was initially shot in the foot and arm before struggling with the gunman and being shot a third time in the chest. The assailant fled the scene and remains at large.
❗️For context: Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseev, who was shot by an unknown assailant in 🇷🇺Moscow, is the First Deputy Chief of the GRU of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
In the video: Footage from the scene of the assassination attempt.… https://t.co/YrGUPDcLVy pic.twitter.com/QTLttrmqVV
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) February 6, 2026
Alekseyev has served as the GRU’s first deputy chief since 2011 and received the Hero of Russia award in 2017 for his role in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria. Born in Soviet Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region, he began his career in Spetsnaz special forces and rose to oversee intelligence operations in Ukraine.
Western governments have sanctioned Alekseyev repeatedly over the past decade. The European Union designated him in 2019 for orchestrating the 2018 Novichok nerve agent attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, which subsequently killed a British woman who later found the discarded nerve agent hidden in a perfume bottle. The United States also sanctioned him in 2016 for directing cyber operations targeting the U.S. presidential election.
The general gained public exposure during the June 2023 Wagner Group mutiny when he was filmed negotiating with mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin at a military compound seized by Wagner fighters in Rostov-on-Don.
Wagner head Prigozhin has popped up in Rostov, with both Colonel General Yunus-Bek, Deputy Minister of Defense, and Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, deputy chief of Russian military intelligence. pic.twitter.com/jLJvuSCyNJ
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 24, 2023
Moscow blamed Ukraine within hours of the shooting, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calling the attack an attempt to “undermine the peace process” one day after trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States concluded in Abu Dhabi. The Russian delegation at those talks was led by GRU chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov, Alekseyev’s direct superior.
Ukraine has not commented on the shooting, though Kyiv has claimed responsibility for previous assassinations of Russian military figures, including the December 2025 car bombing that killed Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian General Staff’s Operational Training Department.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was being briefed on the incident and acknowledged that senior military figures face heightened risk during wartime.
