Senior Russian GRU General Shot and Wounded in Moscow

Russia’s Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev, a senior GRU official, was shot multiple times and hospitalized in Moscow. He has been involved in key military operations in Ukraine and negotiations with the Wagner group. The perpetrators are unknown. Alexeyev is the latest high-ranking Russian officer targeted in a series of attacks, including the killings of Lt Gens Igor Kirillov and Fanil Sarvarov in recent years.

Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, a senior official in Russia’s military, was shot multiple times and seriously wounded in Moscow on Friday morning. The attack took place in a residential building on the north-western outskirts of the city, and Alexeyev was immediately transported to a hospital, although Russian authorities have not provided details about his current condition. Alexeyev is a high-profile figure within the main directorate of Russia’s military general staff, the GRU, and his targeting underscores a growing pattern of attacks against senior Russian military officials in the capital since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began nearly four years ago.
Alexeyev had previously been placed under European Union sanctions due to the GRU’s alleged involvement in the 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury, United Kingdom. His military career has been closely tied to significant events in the war in Ukraine. He took part in negotiations during the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022 and was later dispatched to engage with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, after Prigozhin’s brief but violent mutiny in June 2023. These high-profile roles have made him both influential and a potential target for attacks.
Svetlana Petrenko of Russia’s Investigations Committee confirmed that Alexeyev had been hospitalised and stated that authorities have opened a criminal case for attempted murder. At this stage, it remains unclear who carried out the shooting or what their motives may have been. While Ukraine has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian military figures, Russian intelligence officials recently reported thwarting an attempted assault on a soldier in St. Petersburg at the end of the previous month, highlighting ongoing security concerns for personnel within Russia’s armed forces.
The attack on Alexeyev is part of a broader pattern of targeted violence against high-ranking Russian military officers. In January, an Uzbek man was sentenced for the killing of General Igor Kirillov in 2024, who died in an explosion outside a block of flats in Moscow. The Ukrainian SBU intelligence agency claimed responsibility for that attack. Kirillov had been in charge of Russia’s Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Protection troops. Additionally, in December 2025, another senior GRU officer, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, was killed when an explosive device detonated under his car in Moscow. Sarvarov had overseen the armed forces’ operational training department.
These incidents demonstrate the heightened risks faced by Russia’s senior military officials, particularly those involved in sensitive operations or high-profile roles in the conflict in Ukraine. The shooting of Alexeyev adds to concerns about the security of top Russian officers in Moscow and raises questions about who might be behind these attacks and whether they are linked to ongoing hostilities in Ukraine or other internal and external threats targeting Russia’s military leadership. The event further illustrates the increasingly precarious environment in which Russian military leaders operate, as attacks continue to challenge the perceived safety of even the highest-ranking personnel within the armed forces.