Russian authorities announced on Sunday that the individual suspected of shooting a deputy chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency in Moscow has been apprehended in Dubai and extradited to Russia. They have accused him of acting on behalf of Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was hospitalized after being shot multiple times on Friday by an attacker at a residential building in northwestern Moscow, according to Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko. This incident occurred in the context of a series of targeted killings of high-ranking military officials in Russia, which the country has attributed to Ukraine.
The Federal Security Service (FSB) reported that a Russian national named Lyubomir Korba was captured in Dubai under suspicion of carrying out the shooting. The FSB also disclosed the identification of two alleged 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 with instructions from Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out a terrorist attack. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov characterized the incident as a “terrorist act” orchestrated by Ukraine to disrupt peace negotiations, although Kyiv had not responded to these allegations at the time.
The shooting took place following peace talks in Abu Dhabi involving Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S. representatives aimed at resolving the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The Russian delegation at these talks was led by Admiral Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s military intelligence agency, where the victim, Alekseyev, served as the first deputy since 2011.
Meanwhile, a lethal Russian airstrike in eastern Ukraine resulted in one fatality and two injuries, as reported by officials on Sunday. The attack targeted the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, causing a fire in a nine-story apartment building. Additionally, Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Poltava region overnight, according to Ukraine’s state-owned gas company, Naftogaz.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned that the U.S. has set a June deadline for Ukraine and Russia to reach a peace agreement. Failure to meet this deadline could lead to increased pressure from the U.S. administration on both parties to end the conflict. Zelenskyy emphasized the importance of adhering to the proposed timeline and expressed the mutual desire to achieve a peaceful resolution by June.
