High-ranking Russian General Assassinated in Moscow Following Wave of Attacks on Senior Military Leaders
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev has been hospitalized following a shooting incident in Moscow, raising further alarm regarding the ongoing threats to Russia’s military leadership.
A senior Russian military officer, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev, was taken to the hospital on Friday following a shooting in Moscow, according to investigators. This incident represents the latest in a series of attacks aimed at high-ranking military officials.
Alexeyev, the deputy head of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, sustained injuries at a residential building in northwest Moscow. The Moscow prosecutor’s office reported that he was shot multiple times by an unidentified assailant who escaped the scene.
According to investigators, Russia’s delegation in negotiations has been led by his superior, GRU chief Igor Kostyukov.
Since the onset of the war in Ukraine, multiple senior Russian officers have been assassinated, leading Moscow to accuse Kyiv of orchestrating the attacks. In certain cases, Ukrainian military intelligence has openly asserted its responsibility.
Since December 2024, three other officials of the same rank as Alexeyev, lieutenant general, have been killed in or near Moscow.
The series of attacks has sparked outrage among prominent Russian war bloggers, who are questioning the apparent lack of adequate protection for such high-ranking officials. In a minimum of two instances, senior officers were slain outside their residences.
On December 22, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the General Staff’s army training directorate, was killed by a bomb that had been placed under his car.
Alexeyev was recognized for managing the interactions between the Defence Ministry and the Wagner mercenary group, headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, which engaged in some of the most intense battles during the initial phases of the war in Ukraine.
Prigozhin openly criticized Russia’s defense leadership and led a short-lived mutiny in June 2023. Alexeyev was one of the high-ranking officials dispatched to engage in negotiations with him during the crisis. The mutiny ultimately fell apart, and Prigozhin perished in a plane crash two months afterward.
