Russian general shot and wounded in Moscow, in latest attack on top military leaders

(CNN) — A Russian general serving as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow on Friday, officials said – the latest in a series of attacks on top military figures.

An unknown attacker fired several shots at Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev in a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow and fled the scene, a Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson said in a statement.

The Russian Investigative Committee said its officers are at the scene and investigators are searching for the shooter. The committee has opened a criminal case into what it called the attempted murder of a high-ranking defense ministry official.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Ukrainian government of being behind the attempted murder of Alekseyev, without citing evidence.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the shooting.

Alekseyev has been transferred to a city hospital, the Investigative Committee statement said. He is in intensive care and in a serious condition following the shooting, according to Russian state media.

Alekseyev, 64, is the first deputy head of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU. The Russian general was one of several GRU officials sanctioned by the United States in 2016 for wide-ranging malicious cyber activity directed at undermining US democratic processes.

He was also sanctioned by the European Union in January 2019 following a nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England, which the British government said was carried out by GRU agents to poison a former Russian spy. The EU sanctions describe Alekseyev as “responsible for the possession, transport and use in Salisbury… of the toxic nerve agent ‘Novichok’ by officers from the GRU,” along with sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

Alexseyev has had significant involvement in the war in Ukraine, serving as one of Russia’s negotiators in the secret talks with a member of the Ukrainian parliament to end Russia’s 2022 siege of the strategic city of Mariupol, Ukraine.

A Ukrainian intelligence report on Alexseyev claims he has been responsible for “the organization of the preparation of initial data for launching missile and air strikes on Ukrainian territory,” including on civilian targets, as well as being responsible for the illegal referenda in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukraine has also accused him of war crimes in Syria.

In 2023, Alekseyev was sent by the Russian military to negotiate with Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, during the Wagner group’s mutiny. At the time, he called Prigozhin’s actions a coup as well as “a stab in the back of the country and the president.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a Friday press briefing that the intelligence services were investigating the attack and would report any findings to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added: “We wish the general survival and recovery.”

“It is clear that such military leaders and highly qualified specialists are at risk during a war,” Peskov said when asked about the security of military officials’ residences. “That’s a matter for the intelligence services.”

A neighbor of Alekseyev told Reuters that she heard several shots around 6:30 a.m. local time Friday. The woman, who only gave her first name as Alexandra, said she “woke up because of shots” and rushed outside the residential building alongside other neighbors. Another resident had already called police, who arrived by 7 a.m., she said.

Several prominent Russians have been killed by explosive devices or shot dead in Moscow in attacks blamed on the Ukrainian security services since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian strikes continue

Friday’s shooting in Moscow comes one day after Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met for trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, where the Russian delegation was led by their military intelligence chief Kostyukov.

The Kremlin on Friday described the trilateral talks as “both constructive and challenging.”

Ukraine’s negotiation team also said the talks were “truly constructive” in a comment to news agency RBC-Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they’d “agreed that the next meeting will be held in the near future.”

But beyond a prisoner swap that took place on Thursday, which saw 314 POWs exchanged, no major breakthroughs were announced by either side.

Meanwhile on Friday, the Pentagon announced that the US State Department approved a potential $185 million sale of spare parts for US-provided vehicles and weapon systems to Ukraine.

Despite the diplomatic engagement, Russia’s attacks on Ukraine have continued this week.

At least three Ukrainian people were killed and 15 people injured in Russian attacks within the last day, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday. Russia launched two ballistic missiles, five cruise missiles and hundreds of drones overnight into Friday, hitting the Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv.

In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian attack on Friday heavily damaged an animal shelter, according to the city council, which released video showing several animals injured or killed.

Throughout the winter – the coldest one Ukraine has experienced in 20 years – Russia’s military has also intensified its assault on the country’s energy sector.

In the capital Kyiv, where temperatures are below freezing on Friday, 1,100 high-rise residential buildings remain without power, according to local authorities. In the two districts of Kyiv that have been hit hard by attacks on energy infrastructure, about half the schools are operating without heat.

“The Kremlin is doubling down on war crimes, deliberately striking homes and civilian infrastructure,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday, as she announced the EU is tabling its 20th package of sanctions against Russia.

“This is not the conduct of a state seeking peace. It is the behaviour of a nation waging a war of attrition against a civilian innocent population,” von der Leyen said.

This is story has been updated with developments.

CNN’s Victoria Butenko and Svitlana Vlasova contributed to this report.

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