On Sunday, Russian officials announced the capture of the individual believed to have shot a deputy chief of the country’s military intelligence agency in Moscow. The suspect was apprehended in Dubai and subsequently returned to Russia, with authorities claiming he was acting on behalf of Ukraine.
According to Svetlana Petrenko, a spokesperson for the Investigative Committee, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was admitted to the hospital after being shot multiple times on Friday by an attacker at an apartment complex in northwestern Moscow. This incident followed a string of assassinations of high-ranking military officials that Russia has attributed to Ukraine.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that a Russian national named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai under suspicion of executing the shooting. In their statement posted online, the FSB also mentioned the identification of two “accomplices,” one of whom was arrested in Moscow while the other “traveled to Ukraine.”
On their Telegram channel, Russia’s Investigative Committee stated that Korba had arrived in Moscow in December “under instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out a terrorist act.”
In response to the shooting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov remarked on Friday that the investigation would be handled by law enforcement agencies, characterizing the incident as an apparent “terrorist act” by Ukraine aimed at undermining peace negotiations. Kyiv has not yet responded to inquiries regarding these allegations from Russia.
Shooting follows peace talks in Abu Dhabi
The shooting transpired just a day after Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. negotiators concluded two days of discussions in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, focused on resolving the nearly four-year conflict in Ukraine. The Russian delegation was led by Alekseyev’s superior, military intelligence chief Admiral Igor Kostyukov.
Alekseyev, aged 64, has held the position of first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, since 2011.
He received the Hero of Russia medal for his contributions to Moscow’s military operations in Syria. In June 2023, state television featured him conversing with mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin during the Wagner Group’s brief takeover of the military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don.
Lethal Russian airstrike hits Ukraine overnight
A Russian airstrike targeting a residential neighborhood in eastern Ukraine resulted in one fatality and two injuries, officials reported on Sunday, following President Zelenskyy’s comments that the U.S. has set a June deadline for both Ukraine and Russia to finalize a peace agreement.
The attack in Kramatorsk, located in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, ignited a fire in a nine-story residential building, according to information from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
A resident stands at the site of apartment buildings hit by a Russian airstrike, in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. (Iryna Rybakova/Press Service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Reuters)
Additionally, Russian forces targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Poltava region during the night, as reported by Serhii Koretskyi, the head of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, Naftogaz.
Throughout the conflict, Russia has persistently attacked Ukraine’s electrical grid, particularly during winter months, as part of a strategy aimed at diminishing the Ukrainian resolve to resist, a tactic that officials in Kyiv have termed “weaponizing winter.”
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On Friday, Zelenskyy informed reporters that the U.S. has set a deadline of June for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace settlement. He indicated that if this deadline is not met, the Trump administration would likely intensify pressure on both parties.
According to the Ukrainian president, “The Americans are proposing that the parties conclude the war by early summer and are likely to exert pressure to ensure adherence to this timeline. They have expressed their intention to achieve resolution by June and are committed to facilitating the end of hostilities, insisting on a clear schedule for all proceedings.”