Attack on general in Moscow, there are two suspects

Born in what is now Ukraine in 1961, Alekseyev is a long-standing military man: former Spetsnaz, Moscow's special forces, he had a long career in the services.

In 2015, he was on the ground in Syria, where the Kremlin intervened militarily in support of Bashar Al-Assad's regime against jihadists: it was here that his skills in supervising military officers earned him the title 'Hero of the Russian Federation'.

In 2016 he became deputy head of the Crane. His action becomes increasingly global: the US sanctions him for his alleged role in cyber attacks attributed to Russia to influence the US elections.

In 2019 the EU sanctions him, with the accusation this time of orchestrating the nerve agent attack on Russian defector Sergei Skripal in the UK in 2018.

He is considered the head of intelligence in Ukraine, and the person responsible, among other things, for overseeing private military companies.

It is here that the figure of Alekseyev intersects with that of another key figure in Russia's military-espionage chiaroscuros, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner who marched on Moscow in a failed mutiny attempt in 2023.

It was Alekseyev, then, who mediated between the rebels and the Kremlin. Prigozhin died a few months later in a plane crash. Behind which some saw the shadow of the military secret service.

The European Commission has presented the 20th sanctions package against Russia. It is a proposal that will now be considered by the 27, whose permanent representatives - according to LaPresse - will meet next week. "While important peace talks are going on in Abu Dhabi, we have to be clear: Russia will only sit at the negotiating table with genuine intentions if it is pushed to do so," says Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

This is the only language Russia understands. That is why we are stepping up today. The Commission is proposing a new sanctions package, the 20th since the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The new sanctions package covers energy, financial services and trade'.

"Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine will soon reach 1,500 days. Over the past year, Russian forces have advanced an average of between 15 and 70 metres per day. They have only conquered about 0.8 per cent of Ukrainian territory, despite the highest casualty rate recorded in any military offensive since the Second World War,' he emphasises.

While Ukraine continues to defend itself with extraordinary courage on the battlefield, the Kremlin is doubling down on war crimes, deliberately targeting civilian homes and infrastructure. Power plants and heating systems have all been targeted, leaving entire communities without electricity in freezing temperatures. This is not the conduct of a state seeking peace. It is the conduct of a nation waging a war of attrition against an innocent civilian population

Energy supply problems continue in the Ukrainian capital. "The situation remains difficult in Kiev, where more than 1,200 buildings in various districts of the capital are still without heating," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced today, adding that he considers the work of the Air Force in some regions of Ukraine "unsatisfactory". "I consider the work of the Air Force in some regions of Ukraine to be unsatisfactory, and we have discussed with the Commander of the Air Force and the Minister of Defence of Ukraine the measures that need to be implemented immediately to increase effectiveness in shooting down 'Shahed' drones," Zelensky wrote on his social media, at the end of the now customary meeting on the Ukrainian energy crisis.

Meanwhile in Russia, Vladimir Alekseyev, a general who holds a high-level position in the Russian General Staff and deputy head of military intelligence, was shot at in an apartment building in Moscow this morning and was rushed to hospital. This was stated by the Russian Investigative Committee, according to which "in a residential building located on Volokolamskoe Avenue in Moscow, an unidentified individual fired several shots" at Alekseyev before fleeing. "The victim was hospitalised," the Investigative Committee said, quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Meanwhile, Russian attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia and the Ukrainian region of the same name caused at least two deaths and one wounded tonight, local officials announced. The victims are a 49-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman: the couple's house was hit by a raid on the city of Vilniansk. The injured person is a 14-year-old boy from the regional capital. Russian attacks also reached the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, tonight. On the opposite front, a Kiev missile raid hit the Russian city of Belgorod causing 'significant damage to infrastructure' and interrupting - according to local authorities - the supply of electricity, heating and water in some areas.

Another person was killed and two others were injured in a Russian attack overnight on the Ukrainian Dnipropetrovsk region. This was stated by the oblast governor Oleksandr Ganzha quoted by Ukrainska Pravda. "The communities of Vasylkivska, Malomykhaylivska, Slovianska and Pokrovska in the Synelnyky district were attacked. The attacker used drones and (bombs) Cab. One man was killed and two others were injured,' Ganzha said.