They include the man accused of having carried out the attack, named as Ukrainian-born Russian citizen Lyubomir Korba.

Russia's Investigations Committee (SK) said Korba arrived in the capital, Moscow, in late December "on assignment from Ukrainian intelligence services to commit a terrorist attack". Kyiv has reportedly denied involvement.

Alexeyev, 64, was taken to hospital after the attack in a residential block of flats in the north-western outskirts of Moscow on Friday. He has since regained consciousness following surgery, according to Russian media reports.

Alexeyev is number two in the main directorate of GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency, and the latest high-ranking military figure to have been targeted in or near Moscow since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said on Sunday that his attacker had fired three shots before fleeing and that Korba had then travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the hours after the shooting. He has since been arrested and extradited.

Russian state TV channel Ru-24 aired footage showing security agents escorting Korba off a plane at an unknown location.

"Investigators conducted a thorough inspection at the scene, during which they discovered the murder weapon - a Makarov pistol with a silencer and three rounds of ammunition," Petrenko added. Forensic tests are being carried out on the gun.

Russian media, quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reported that President Vladimir Putin had thanked UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Saturday for his country's help in catching Korba.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha was quoted by Reuters as saying on Friday that Kyiv had nothing to do with the shooting, suggesting that it was an internal Russian affair.

His Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack as a way to disrupt negotiations on ending the war between the two countries, which began in February 2022.

Alexeyev's boss, GRU head Adm Igor Kostyukov, has been leading the Russian delegation at recent trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.

Korba is alleged to have had at least one accomplice. A man named by the SK as Viktor Vasin has been arrested and charged by the authorities in Moscow.

A woman named as Zinaida Serebritskaya, who has since left for Ukraine, is also thought to be involved, but Petrenko did not elaborate on how.

Ukraine has claimed some attacks on Russian military figures in the past, while Russian intelligence officials claimed they had thwarted an attempted attack on a Russian soldier in St Petersburg at the end of last month.

An Uzbek man was jailed in January for the 2024 killing of another general, Igor Kirillov, in an explosion outside a block of flats in Moscow. Sources in Ukraine's SBU intelligence said at the time that it had been behind the attack.

Lt Gen Kirillov had been in charge of Russia's nuclear, biological and chemical protection troops.

In December 2025, another high-ranking officer in the GRU, Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, was killed when an explosive device detonated under a car in Moscow. He was in charge of the armed force's operational training department, according to the SK.

Russia is also thought to have targeted high-profile Ukrainian military and political figures during the Russia-Ukraine war.

Last July, Ukrainian security services said they had thwarted an attempt on the life of Serhiy Filimonov, commander of an assault unit known as the "Da Vinci Wolves".

It came after a senior Ukrainian intelligence officer was shot dead in the street in Kyiv, whose killing Ukraine attributed to agents working on behalf of Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has himself been subjected to numerous assassination and kidnapping plots, and Kyrylo Budanov - who until January this year was head of Ukraine's military intelligence - also says he has been targeted.

Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev is a senior figure in the main directorate of Russia's military general staff.

BBC at scene where Russian general was shot in MoscowRussia editor Steve Rosenberg reports from the outskirts of the Russian capital, where Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev was shot and wounded.

The BBC sees sites on former United Arab Emirates bases in Yemen where detainees say they were abused.

The government in Mogadishu has accused the UAE of undermining its sovereignty.

Aidarous al-Zubaidi, head of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, fled to Somaliland by boat before flying to Abu Dhabi, according to the coalition.