February 8, 2026, 12:15 p.mFebruary 8, 2026, 12:15 p.m
Two days after the assassination attempt on the deputy head of Russian military intelligence, investigators present two arrests. From Moscow’s perspective, it is clear: Kiev is behind the shooting of Vladimir Alexeyev. There is talk of an “act of terrorism”. This is not the first attack on a high-ranking Russian military officer in the recent past.
The 64-year-old Alexeyev was shot on Friday in a residential building in the northeast of the Russian capital Moscow and taken to hospital with serious injuries. He has now regained consciousness, as the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
According to the Russian domestic intelligence service FSB, the perpetrator was arrested in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and transferred to Russia. An accomplice was arrested in Moscow and another accomplice fled to Ukraine. The statement said the search for the organizers was ongoing.
The alleged perpetrator was taken to Russia.Image: keystone
Russia blames Ukraine
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already accused Ukraine of being involved in the crime on Friday. “This terrorist act has once again confirmed the Zelensky regime’s focus on constant provocations, which in turn are aimed at undermining the negotiation process,” he said.
Russian investigators have now fleshed out the allegations. The suspect arrested in Dubai came to Moscow at the end of December 2025 on behalf of Ukrainian secret services to carry out an act of terrorism, the Russian Investigative Committee said. The man is said to have been born in Ternopil in what is now Ukraine during the Soviet Union. He is a Russian citizen.
This picture is supposed to show the assassin.Image: keystone
The attack came a day after a new round of talks on ending the war in Ukraine in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. There, Alexeyev’s immediate superior, Igor Kostyukov, led the negotiations on behalf of the Russian side.
The West imposed sanctions on Alexeyev
Alexeyev has been on Western sanctions lists for years, among other things because he organized cybercrime and is said to have distributed the Novichok nerve agent in the course of the affair surrounding the attempted killing of defected secret service agent Sergei Skripal in Great Britain.
According to publicly available information, Alexeyev was born in Vinnytsia Oblast in what is now Ukraine. However, he spent his entire military career, which began in Soviet times, in Russia. There he was most recently deputy head of the GRU military intelligence service. During the Syria war, he led the Russian military’s intelligence operations in the Middle East country.
Vladimir Alexeyev.Image: keystone
According to media reports, after the start of the war in Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, he was also jointly responsible for the formation and organization of so-called volunteer battalions. He is also wanted in Kiev for providing data for air strikes in which civilian objects were repeatedly destroyed and civilians were killed.
According to Russian media, Alexeyev was involved in negotiations in 2023 with Yevgeny Prigozhin, who at that time began a march on Moscow with his mercenary force from southern Russia because he did not agree with the Russian General Staff’s conduct of the war. However, he called off this coup attempt. Three months later, he and several followers died in a plane crash that was suspected to be an attack.
Not the first assassination attempt on military personnel
High-ranking military officers in Moscow and also propagandists have repeatedly been the targets of attacks since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. For example, in April 2025, Lieutenant General Jaroslaw Moskalik died in a car bomb explosion. In December 2024, Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian NBC defense force, was also killed in a bomb attack. The Ukrainian secret service claimed responsibility for the crime.
Russia always condemns this – as in this case – as terrorism. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken of terrorism following the devastating Russian attacks on the country’s energy supply. At times, millions of people in Ukraine were cut off from electricity and heat supplies – sometimes with double-digit temperatures below zero. (sda/dpa)