Russian authorities said the man suspected of shooting a senior figure in Russia’s military intelligence was detained in Dubai and handed over to Russia, a development authorities tied to alleged Ukrainian involvement. The shooting targeted Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev, who was hospitalized after being shot several times Friday at an apartment building in northwestern Moscow, Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Russian security and investigative agencies also said they had identified alleged accomplices connected to the attack.
Russia’s Federal Security Service said in a statement posted on its website that Lyubomir Korba, a Russian citizen, had been detained in Dubai on suspicion of carrying out the shooting. The FSB said it had also identified two accomplices, one of whom was detained in Moscow and another who “left for Ukraine,” according to the AP report.
Investigators identified additional details about Korba’s alleged role. Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Telegram that Korba arrived in Moscow in December “on instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services to commit a terrorist attack,” the AP report said. The investigators framed the attack within a broader pattern of killings of senior military officers that Russia has blamed on Ukraine.
The AP report said the shooting came amid negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine and the U.S. that concluded a day earlier in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where officials held two days of talks aimed at ending the nearly 4-year-old conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday that law enforcement agencies would pursue the investigation, and he described the shooting as an apparent “terrorist act” by Ukraine intended to derail peace talks. The AP report said there was no immediate response from Kyiv to a request for comment on the Russian allegations.
In the immediate aftermath, the Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said Alekseyev was hospitalized after being shot several times by an assailant at the Moscow apartment building. Alekseyev, 64, has served as first deputy head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, since 2011, according to the AP report. Russian authorities said he was decorated with the Hero of Russia medal for his role in Moscow’s military campaign in Syria.
The AP report also described Alekseyev’s earlier presence on state television in June 2023, when he appeared in connection with mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group’s seizure of a military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don during Prigozhin’s short-lived mutiny. Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the AP report said Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for multiple assassinations of senior military officers and public figures, while Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of those killings.