Russian officials announced on Sunday that a man believed to have shot a deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency in Moscow was apprehended in Dubai and extradited to Russia. Authorities accused him of acting on behalf of Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was shot multiple times on Friday by an attacker at an apartment complex in northwestern Moscow, as stated by Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko. The incident occurred amidst a series of targeted killings of high-ranking military officers, which Russia has attributed to Ukraine.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) disclosed that a Russian national, Lyubomir Korba, was arrested in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting. FSB also identified two accomplices, one of whom was detained in Moscow, while the other fled to Ukraine.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, Korba arrived in Moscow in December on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out a terrorist attack. In response to the incident, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov labeled it a “terrorist act” orchestrated by Ukraine to disrupt peace negotiations.
The shooting occurred following peace talks in Abu Dhabi involving Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. representatives aimed at resolving the long-standing conflict in Ukraine. Alekseyev, a decorated military figure, has served as the first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, since 2011.
In a separate incident, a lethal Russian airstrike in eastern Ukraine claimed one life and injured two individuals. The attack targeted the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, resulting in a fire at a nine-story residential building. Additionally, Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Poltava region, according to Ukraine’s state-owned gas company.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy revealed that the U.S. has set a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace agreement. Failure to meet this deadline may lead to increased pressure from the U.S. administration on both parties to end the conflict.