Deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence wounded in Moscow shooting
Several senior Russian officers have been assassinated since the start of the war in Ukraine
A deputy chief of Russian military intelligence was shot and wounded in Moscow on Friday in an attack that follows a series of assassinations of senior military officers that Russia blamed on Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was shot several times by an unidentified assailant at a residential building in Moscow’s northwest and rushed to hospital, Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement.
Petrenko did not say who could be behind the attack on Alekseyev, who has served as the first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence since 2011.
“Investigative actions and operational search measures are being carried out to identify the person or persons involved in committing the aforementioned crime,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the attempted assassination of Alekseyev, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday accused Ukraine of being behind the “terrorist act” designed to sabotage peace talks.