Senior Russian General Shot in Moscow Apartment Building, Hospitalized

A senior Russian general was shot on Friday morning in a Moscow apartment building and has been hospitalized, officials said. This incident targeting a top Russian military figure is being viewed as a clear assassination attempt.

Russia's Investigative Committee, which probes major serious crimes, stated that General Vladimir Alexeev, who holds a senior position in the Russian General Staff, was shot multiple times by an "unknown person" before fleeing the scene.

"The victim has been hospitalized," the Investigative Committee added in a statement. The committee did not provide any details regarding the identity of the suspect or suspects involved in the incident.

Many high-ranking Russian military officials have been killed since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Kyiv has claimed responsibility for some of those attacks.

According to his online biography, General Alexeev is a career military officer and currently serves as the First Deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff. He led intelligence operations during Russia's military intervention in Syria, supporting the current leader Bashar al-Assad at that time.

Furthermore, he was sent to negotiate with Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin during the attempted mutiny against top Russian military officials in 2023.

"We are employing all investigative and operational search measures to identify the person or persons involved in the aforementioned crime," Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.

Last month, a Russian court sentenced a citizen of Uzbekistan to life imprisonment for the murder of General Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian Army's Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, in 2024.

General Kirillov was killed when a booby-trapped scooter exploded as he was leaving an apartment block in Moscow. Kyiv had claimed responsibility for planning that attack.