- Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev was shot in southern Russia and is in critical condition
- Russia blamed Ukraine, calling the attack a terrorist act aimed at disrupting peace talks
- Several high-ranking Russian officers have been assassinated since 2022, with some linked to Ukraine
As the Russia-Ukraine war enters its fourth year, the battlefield is no longer confined to drones and missile strikes along the frontlines. A series of assassinations and targeted attacks on Russian soil suggests that a separate conflict is being fought far from borders, in apartment stairwells, car parkings and public parks.
It was as part of this shadow conflict that bullets rang out in southern Russia early on Friday. Minutes later, a top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country's intelligence services was on the ground.
Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, a deputy director of Russia's military intelligence agency, the GRU, was shot at least three times on the stairwell of his apartment building. The attacker, according to initial reports, posed as a delivery worker. Alekseyev remains in critical condition.
Alekseyev is the latest senior military figure to have been targeted in Moscow.
Alekseyev is a senior figure within the GRU, an arm of the Russian defence ministry known for covert operations including assassinations, sabotage and espionage. He played a key role in supplying intelligence to the Kremlin ahead of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He is also under US sanctions for his alleged involvement in efforts to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election.
After President Vladimir Putin was briefed, Russian authorities swiftly blamed Ukraine for the attack.
In televised remarks, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the shooting as a "terrorist act" and accused Kyiv of trying to "disrupt the negotiation process" aimed at ending the war.
The Kremlin said its security agencies had launched an investigation.
The timing of the attack is important. It came just a day after Alekseyev's boss, Igor Kostyukov, led the Russian delegation in talks with Ukraine in the United Arab Emirates. Although the discussions produced no visible breakthrough, both sides said further talks could follow.
At the time of writing, there have been no comments from Kyiv. But if Ukraine does end up taking the responsibility of the attack, the shooting would fit a growing pattern of high-profile assassinations in Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
2025
Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was killed in a car bomb.
In December 2025, Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces' General Staff, was killed when a car bomb exploded.
Earlier that year, in April 2025, another high-ranking officer, Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the General Staff's main operational department, was killed by a bomb placed in his car outside his apartment near Moscow. Russian authorities later said a Russian man who had previously lived in Ukraine carried out the attack. He pleaded guilty and told investigators Ukraine's security services had paid him.
2024
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.
December 2024 saw one of the most daring assassinations since the war began. Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. His assistant also died in the blast. Ukraine's security service publicly claimed responsibility.
That same month, missile scientist Mikhail Shatsky was shot dead in a forest outside Moscow. In this case as well, Ukraine's intelligence service took responsibility for the killing.
2023
In December 2023, Illia Kyva, a pro-Russian former Ukrainian MP who had fled to Russia shortly before the war, was shot dead in a park in suburban Moscow. A Ukrainian source told Reuters that the SBU security service was behind the killing, a claim reported by several Ukrainian media outlets.
Ukraine's military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov later said on national television, "We can confirm that Kyva is done. Such a fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine, as well as the henchmen of the Putin regime."
Earlier, in July 2023, Stanislav Rzhitsky, a senior Russian draft officer and former submarine commander accused by Ukraine of launching deadly strikes, was shot dead while jogging.
Ukrainian intelligence did not formally claim responsibility, but released a cryptic statement hinting that it had a part in the killing. "Due to heavy rain, the park was deserted, so there were no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker," the statement said.
In April 2023, pro-war military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, real name Maxim Fomin, was killed in a cafe bombing in central St Petersburg. The bomb was hidden in a statue, which was given to him as a gift during a public event. Russian courts later sentenced Daria Trepova, a young anti-war activist, to 27 years in prison, the harshest known sentence for a woman in modern Russian history. Investigators said she had collaborated with a Ukrainian "sabotage and terrorism group".
2022
Dugin and his wife, both dressed in black, sat next to their daughter's coffin.
In August 2022, just months after the invasion began, a car bomb exploded in a Moscow suburb, killing Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, Aleksandr Dugin, who openly supported the war. The New York Times later reported that US intelligence agencies believed elements within the Ukrainian government had authorised the attack.
The frontlines, it seems, are no longer just on the map.
