Senior Russian Military Intelligence Officer Shot in Moscow Stairwell, Officials Say

Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, the powerful first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence service, was shot multiple times in the stairwell of his Moscow apartment building early Feb. 6 and is in critical condition, Russian officials said, in one of the highest-profile attacks on a senior Russian officer since the invasion of Ukraine.

Shooting in northwest Moscow

An unidentified gunman opened fire on Alekseyev in a residential high-rise on Volokolamskoye Highway in northwest Moscow at around 7 a.m. local time, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. The attacker fled the scene. Neighbors reported hearing several shots and cries for help before emergency services arrived and rushed the 64-year-old general to hospital for surgery.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed “an attempt on the life of Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev in Moscow,” saying he had been hospitalized and that a criminal case had been opened. Russian state media described his condition as “critical,” and several Western outlets, citing medical and security sources, reported he had been placed in a coma.

Investigators said they have opened a case under articles covering attempted murder and illegal trafficking of firearms. Forensic teams were examining the scene and reviewing surveillance footage, but officials did not name any suspects.

Several law enforcement sources quoted in Russian and Western media said the assailant appears to have gained access to the building in advance and waited in the stairwell. Some accounts said the attacker posed as a delivery courier, a common disguise in Moscow, though that detail has not been confirmed in official statements. Later in the day, Russian business daily Kommersant reported that investigators were searching for a woman seen on security cameras near the scene around the time of the shooting.

The Investigative Committee referred publicly only to an “unidentified person” who “fired several shots at a man in a residential building and fled.”

Competing claims as talks continue

The attack hit one of the key figures in Russia’s security apparatus at a politically sensitive moment, coinciding with renewed talks between Russian, Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Abu Dhabi over a possible framework to end the war.

Senior Russian officials quickly blamed Ukraine, calling the shooting a terrorist act aimed at sabotaging diplomacy, while Kyiv denied any involvement and suggested Kremlin infighting could be to blame.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the attack “once again confirmed the Zelenskyy regime’s focus on constant provocations” and claimed it was designed “to derail the negotiation process,” referring to the Abu Dhabi talks. He provided no evidence for the allegation. Russian state television and pro-Kremlin commentators repeatedly described the shooting as a “terrorist act” organized by Ukraine.

Ukraine rejected the accusation. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Kyiv had no connection to what happened in Moscow.

“We don’t know what happened with that particular general – maybe it was their own internal Russian in-fighting,” Sybiha said.

Ukraine has previously acknowledged carrying out strikes or assassinations against Russian military and security officials it considers responsible for attacks on Ukrainian territory, including the 2024 killing of Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of Russia’s radiological, chemical and biological defense troops. But officials in Kyiv have neither claimed nor hinted at responsibility in Alekseyev’s case.

On the Ukrainian side, some frontline figures welcomed news of the attack on the man they accuse of overseeing abuses against prisoners of war and civilians.

Denys Prokopenko, commander of Ukraine’s Azov Brigade, said in a social media post that “no war criminal who has killed and tortured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians… will ever feel safe.” Referring to Alekseyev, he added: “Even if he survives this time, he will not sleep peacefully anymore.”

Prokopenko claimed Alekseyev played a central role in surrender negotiations at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in 2022 and said the general bore responsibility for the alleged torture of captured Ukrainian fighters held in Russian custody. His comments stopped short of claiming Ukrainian involvement but were cited in Russian commentary as evidence of motive.

Who Alekseyev is

Alekseyev—whose surname is also transliterated as Alekseev—is widely described by Russian and Western officials as the effective No. 2 in the Main Directorate of the General Staff, better known by its Soviet-era acronym GRU. The agency oversees battlefield and strategic intelligence, special operations forces and many of Moscow’s covert actions abroad.

Born on April 24, 1961, in Vinnytsia region in what is now central Ukraine, Alekseyev served in Soviet airborne troops and special forces before moving into military intelligence. He rose through senior intelligence posts in the Moscow and Far Eastern military districts and later headed a GRU department responsible for Spetsnaz units. In 2011 he was appointed chief of staff and first deputy head of the GRU.

Inside Russia, Alekseyev is a decorated officer. He was awarded the title Hero of the Russian Federation by a secret decree, reportedly for his role in Russia’s intervention in Syria, and has received multiple state orders, including the Order of St. George and the Order of Suvorov.

Abroad, he is a sanctioned figure. The U.S. Treasury Department designated him in 2016 as first deputy chief of the GRU for acting on behalf of the agency in “malicious cyber-enabled activities,” including interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The European Union and United Kingdom later sanctioned him over his alleged involvement in the 2018 nerve-agent poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western and Ukrainian officials have identified Alekseyev as one of the senior officers overseeing aspects of the campaign, including special operations and coordination with private military companies such as the Wagner Group.

His name also surfaced during the short-lived mutiny launched by Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in June 2023. Russian media reported that Alekseyev was among the generals dispatched to Rostov-on-Don to negotiate with Prigozhin as Wagner fighters seized military facilities and advanced toward Moscow. Some accounts suggested he was briefly detained or sidelined afterward, fueling speculation about internal rivalries, though he remained in his post.

A rare attack at Russia’s center of power

The shooting adds to a growing list of attacks on Russian security officials and pro-war figures on Russian territory and in occupied areas of Ukraine. In December 2025, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Russian army’s combat training directorate, was killed when a bomb placed under his car exploded in Moscow. In recent years, bombings have killed nationalist commentator Darya Dugina and military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, among others.

Analysts say the attempt on Alekseyev stands out for the seniority of the target and the circumstances: a close-range shooting in the stairwell of a Moscow apartment block.

For the Kremlin, the attack is both a security embarrassment and a political opportunity. The fact that one of Russia’s most senior intelligence officers could be shot at home in wartime has prompted questions about internal security measures and may trigger calls for tighter protection of top officials. At the same time, branding the shooting as Ukrainian terrorism allows Moscow to reinforce its domestic narrative of a Russia under siege and to put pressure on Kyiv in the diplomatic arena.

For the Abu Dhabi talks, the implications are uncertain. Russia could use the incident to harden its negotiating stance or slow the pace of contacts, arguing that Ukraine is not a trustworthy counterpart. If the attack were shown to be the result of internal rivalries, it would raise separate concerns among Western and Ukrainian negotiators about the cohesion and reliability of the Russian side.

What investigators have said so far

As of Feb. 7, no suspect had been publicly identified and no group had claimed responsibility. Russian investigators continued to examine surveillance footage and interview residents of Alekseyev’s building. The general remained in critical condition, and Russian officials did not comment on his prognosis.

Until more information becomes public, key questions remain: who ordered the attack, whether it was meant to kill or sideline a powerful intelligence chief, and what it will mean for a war that is increasingly reaching into Russia’s own centers of power.