Author: Guy Faulconbridge and Gleb Stolyarov
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Ukrainian-born Russian citizen has been extradited from Dubai to Moscow on suspicion of seriously wounding one of Russia’s top military intelligence officials, Russian security officials and investigators said on Sunday.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeev, deputy chief of Russia’s vast GRU military intelligence service, was shot three times with a silencer-equipped Makarov pistol in an apartment building on the Volokolamsk highway north of Moscow on Friday, according to investigators.
Alexeyev, 64, was rushed to hospital and underwent surgery. Alexeyev has regained consciousness and is able to speak, his wife told a Russian war blogger on Sunday.
A Russian citizen named Lyubomir Korba was detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement.
Russian investigators said Korba was born in the Ternopil region of Soviet Ukraine in 1960 and was assigned by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the shooting. Russia said Ukraine was behind the shootings, but Kiev denied involvement.
Russian media showed masked FSB officers escorting a blindfolded man off a small Russian plane in the dark.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said it had identified two co-conspirators, who were also Russian citizens. Russian investigators said one of them, Viktor Vasin, was detained in Moscow and the other, Zinaida Serebritskaya, fled to Ukraine.
Reuters could not immediately verify the suspect’s details. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said President Vladimir Putin thanked United Arab Emirates leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for helping detain the suspect.
The UAE did not release details of how Korba was detained.
shadow war
A senior Russian intelligence officer was shot just 12 kilometers (7 miles) north of the Kremlin, underscoring the vulnerability of top Russian generals involved in carrying out the war in Ukraine.
Some in Russia have questioned how Alexeyev was tracked to such a location and why he was not better protected.
GRU Chairman Admiral Igor Kostyukov has been leading a Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi to negotiate security-related aspects of a potential peace deal with Ukraine.
Behind the scenes of Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, Russian and Ukrainian military intelligence services are waging a shadow “hybrid” war involving cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, strategic infrastructure attacks and killings.
Since December 2024, three other officials of Alexeyev’s rank have been killed in or near Moscow.
Since the outbreak of war in 2022, Ukrainian military intelligence has claimed responsibility for the assassination of several senior Russian officers, some of whom appear on Ukraine’s public enemy list.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told Reuters on Friday that Ukraine had nothing to do with Alexeev’s shooting.
“We don’t know what happened to that general – maybe it was their own internal Russian infighting,” he said.
‘Serious blow’
Like Russia’s FSB, the GRU is a large and powerful Russian intelligence agency that includes overseas sleeper agents, special forces and advanced cyber capabilities.
Imprisoned Russian nationalist Igor Girkin, who has repeatedly rebuked Russian generals for their chaotic prosecution of the war, praised Alexeev’s energy and courage but said the attack was a major setback.
“This is a serious blow to our special services,” former FSB officer Gilkin said on Telegram.
Alexeyev rose to prominence in June 2023 when he tried to quell Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, in a failed mutiny.
In one video, Alexeyev heard Prigozhin say he had come to pick up then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russia’s top general Valery Gerasimov.
“Then take them with you,” Alexeyev said with a smile.
The rebellion failed, and Prigozhin died in a plane crash two months later.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Aidan Lewis)
