Russia blames Ukraine for attempted assassination of top general – as it happened | Russia
Russia’s Lavrov blames Ukraine for attempted assassination of top general
Back to Russia, we are getting a line from the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, blaming Ukraine for the attempted assassination of a top Russian general in Moscow.
In comments reported by Reuters, he said that it showed that “Zelenskyy seeks to derail peace process” after talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
This Kremlin narrative – presented without any evidence – is not particularly surprising, as Pjotr Sauer explained earlier (10:19).
Key events
Closing summary
Jakub Krupa
… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today!
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A top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country’s intelligence services has been taken to hospital after being shot in Moscow (9:36, 9:45).
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Without offering any evidence, Russia has blamed Ukraine for the attack, suggesting the attack was intended to disrupt the peace negotiations over ending the Russian invasion of the country (10:19, 12:20).
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Alekseyev’s shooting will be seen as the latest failure of Russia’s security services to protect key military personnel deep inside Russia (10:39).
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Separately, the European Commission has put forward new sanctions against Russia amid its continuing aggression on Ukraine, urging member states to swiftly adopt the measures before the fourth anniversary of the full-scale war later this month (15:11).
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The move comes amid new warnings from Norway that Russia could step up its spying activities and sabotage attempts in a bid to undermine Oslo’s support for Ukraine (14:16).
In other news,
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Hundreds of protesters gathered in Milan on Friday to oppose the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and the closure of schools and streets in the city ahead of the opening ceremony of the Milano Cortina Winter Games (11:48).
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The games officially begin tonight with an opening ceremony at the iconic San Siro stadium in Milan.
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US vice-president JD Vance and US secretary of state Marco Rubio are among the highest level international guests attending the games, and they met with the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, earlier today (15:43).
Finally,
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Norway’s economic crime police unit, Økokrim, said it has opened an investigation into former prime minister and chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Thorbjørn Jagland after the latest release of the so-called Epstein files (11:27).
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France and Canada are opening their consulates in Nuuk, Greenland as a sign of support for the territory amid continuing interest in controlling the semi-autonomous Danish territory from the current US administration (14:46).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com.
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Russian general’s condition remains unclear – latest
Pjotr Sauer
Russian affairs reporter
Let’s go back to Moscow for the latest on the attempted assassination of Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev, a top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country’s intelligence services.
Alekseyev’s condition remains unclear.
Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian figure close to Alekseyev, said the general had undergone surgery and remained in a coma.
Ukraine has not officially commented on the shooting of the GRU general Alekseyev.
However, Denys Prokopenko, the commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, wrote on X that if Alekseyev survived the attack he would “never sleep peacefully again”.
“No war criminal who has killed and tortured Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, destroyed Ukrainian cities, abducted Ukrainian children, or committed other crimes against the Ukrainian people will ever feel safe,” Prokopenko added.
Prokopenko said Alekseyev had acted as the senior Russian representative during negotiations over captured Ukrainian soldiers during the siege of Mariupol in May 2022, and accused him of bearing responsibility for the systematic torture of captured Azov fighters.
Meloni hosts Vance, Rubio ahead of Olympics opening ceremony
US vice-president JD Vance and US secretary of state Marco Rubio have met with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, just hours before the opening ceremony of Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan.
In a pretty funny exchange, after delivering a media statement in Italian, Meloni turned to Vance and said that “I know you didn’t know what I was talking about,” with the US VP joking that he “has actually learned Italian since the last time” they met.
Meloni then summarised her opening statement, saying she said “nothing particular” and just repeated some of the usual pleasantries.
She then said that the last time met during the inaugural mass of Pope Leo in Rome, and now they meet at the Olympics, and so Vance gets to experience the values important to Italy and the west.
Vance praised the hosts, saying the city of Milan looks beautiful and that he and his wife had been looking forward to attending the games “pretty much since I became the vice-president.”
They didn’t take any questions, which presumably would touch upon some of the controversies surrounding the US security presence at the games (11:48).
EU puts forward new sanctions on Russia ahead of fourth anniversary of full-scale aggression on Ukraine
The European Commission has put forward new sanctions against Russia amid its continuing aggression on Ukraine.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said “while Ukraine continues to defend itself with extraordinary courage on the battlefield, the Kremlin is doubling down on war crimes, deliberately striking homes and civilian infrastructure.”
“Energy facilities and heating systems have all been targeted, leaving entire communities without power in freezing temperatures. This is not the conduct of a state seeking peace. It is the behaviour of a nation waging a war of attrition against a civilian innocent population.”
In a statement, von der Leyen warned “Russia will only come to the table with genuine intent if it is pressured to do so,” as “this is the only language Russia understands.”
The proposed sanctions will cover energy, financial services and trade, the EU said.
The measures will include “a full maritime services ban for Russian crude oil” to “slash further Russia’s energy revenues and make it more difficult to find buyers for its oil.”
43 more vessels will also be listed as part of the shadow fleet, reaching 640 in total.
Additional sanctions will also target Russia’s banking system, listing 20 more regional banks and taking measures against cryptocurrencies and related companies.
The EU will also “tighten export restrictions to Russia with new bans on goods and services – from rubber to tractors and cybersecurity services, worth over €360m,” and new import bans on metals, chemicals and critical minerals.
The bloc will also “activate for the first time the anti-circumvention tool, by prohibiting the export of any computer numerical control machines and radios to jurisdictions where there is a high risk that these products are re-exported to Russia.”
New measures will also include “stronger legal safeguards for EU companies to protect them from violations of their IP rights or from unfair expropriation in Russia due to abusive court rulings in connection with sanctions.”
Von der Leyen urged EU member states to “swiftly endorse these new sanctions” to “send a powerful signal ahead of the grim fourth anniversary of this [full-scale] war” on 24 February.
France, Canada open consulates in Greenland amid US interest
Speaking of the High North, France and Canada are opening their consulates in Nuuk, Greenland as a sign of support for the territory amid continuing interest in controlling the semi-autonomous Danish territory from the current US administration.
France is the first EU country to open a consulate in Greenland, in line with last year’s political declaration made by the country’s president Emmanuel Macron on his visit to Greenland.
The new consul general, Jean-Noël Poirier, has formally started his service today, and been tasked with “working to deepen existing cultural, scientific and economic cooperation projects with Greenland, while strengthening political ties with the authorities there,” the French foreign ministry said.
“I am not afraid of the cold, the 20-hour nights. I was in Libya last year and we had some close calls. We were hit by mortar shells, but here I won’t need a bulletproof vest or a helmet like in Tripoli so there’s no problem,” Poirier told reporters, quoted by Reuters.
Separately, Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, was travelling to Nuuk to inaugurate the Canadian consulate, which officials say also could help boost cooperation on issues such as the climate crisis and Inuit rights. She was joined by Canada’s Indigenous governor general, Mary Simon.
Norway says it expects more Russian spying in the Arctic, sabotage activity to undermine support for Ukraine
Elsewhere, Norwegian security services said they expect Russia to step up its spying on Norway this year, with a focus on the Arctic, and warned that Moscow may commit acts of sabotage aimed at undermining Oslo’s support for Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Norway, an ally of Ukraine and Europe’s top supplier of pipeline gas, has been increasingly concerned that Russian intelligence agencies could target its energy infrastructure, either physically or via cyber-attacks.
“We expect Russian intelligence services to increase their activity in Norway in 2026, with a continued focus on military targets and allied exercises, Norway’s support for Ukraine, and operations in the High North and the Arctic region,” Norwegian security services (PST) said in an annual threat assessment report published on Friday.
Norway has expelled Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover and shut most of its ports to Russian vessels, limiting Moscow’s room to manoeuvre. But Russian agencies are expected to adapt, the security services said.
The full report is available here.
Concern is growing in Europe at what officials see as an increase in hybrid threats from Russia, which it denies, since it launched its war in Ukraine.
First details of alleged assassination attempt emerge in Russian press
In the meantime, the Russian business daily Kommersant has a bit more on the attempted assassination of the top Russian general we covered earlier.
The paper said the attacker, posing as a delivery person, shot general Vladimir Alekseyev twice in the stairway of his apartment building, wounding him in the foot and the arm, AP reported.
Alekseyev tried to wrest away the gun and was shot again in the chest before the attacker fled, the report said.
Calls to postpone presidential election as Storm Leonardo lashes Portugal and Spain
Sam Jones
in Madrid
Heavy rains and strong winds continued to batter parts of Spain and Portugal on Friday, causing at least one death, forcing the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and prompting calls to postpone the second-round of Portugal’s presidential election.
Storm Leonardo, which has lashed the Iberian peninsula this week, has led the Portuguese government to extend the current state of calamity in 69 municipalities until the middle of February.
The storm has killed one man in Portugal, leaving a young girl missing in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía. It is the latest in a series of deadly storms to have hit Portugal and Spain in recent weeks, killing several people.
The damage and uncertainty brought by the storm has given rise to calls to postpone Sunday’s second round of the presidential election in Portugal.
André Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party, said the vote should be delayed by a week as the poll was “a matter of equality among all Portuguese”.
But the national electoral authority said the vote would go ahead as scheduled.
“A state of emergency, weather alerts or overall unfavourable situations are not in themselves a sufficient reason to postpone voting in a town or region,” it said.
Authorities in Andalucía, where more than 7,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, evacuated residential areas near the Guadalquivir River in Córdoba overnight because the dramatic rise in water levels.
About 1,500 residents have been ordered to leave their homes in Grazalema, a mountain village popular with hikers, as water seeped through the walls of houses and cascaded along steep cobbled streets.
Andalucía’s regional president, Juan Manuel Moreno, told Cadena Ser radio that aquifers in the Grazalema mountains were full and could provoke landslides owing to pent-up pressure. “This could cause large holes or ditches. If this happens under a house or street, the result could be dramatic,” Moreno said.
He added geologists were assessing the situation in Grazalema to determine when residents would be able to return to their homes.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, was due to visit the hardest-hit areas of Andalucía later on Friday.
Scientists say human-driven climate breakdown is increasing the length, intensity and frequency of extreme weather events such as the floods and heatwaves that have struck both countries in recent years.
TikTok could be forced to change app’s ‘addictive design’ by European Commission
Dan Milmo
Global technology editor
Elsewhere, TikTok could be forced into changes to make the app less addictive to users after the EU indicated the platform had breached the bloc’s digital safety rules.
The EU’s executive arm said in a preliminary ruling that the popular app had infringed the Digital Services Act (DSA) due to its “addictive design”.
The European Commission said TikTok, which has more than 1 billion users worldwide, had not adequately assessed how its design could harm the physical and mental wellbeing of users including children and vulnerable adults.
By constantly “rewarding” users with new content, the Chinese-owned platform fuelled constant scrolling and shifted the brains of users into “autopilot mode”, the commission added, which could lead to compulsive behaviour and reduce users’ self-control.
The preliminary ruling accused TikTok of ignoring indicators of compulsive use, such as the amount of time children spend on the app at night.
The commission said it was considering forcing changes to the app’s design, including alterations to its powerful algorithm that pushes content to users.
Russia’s Lavrov blames Ukraine for attempted assassination of top general
Back to Russia, we are getting a line from the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, blaming Ukraine for the attempted assassination of a top Russian general in Moscow.
In comments reported by Reuters, he said that it showed that “Zelenskyy seeks to derail peace process” after talks in Abu Dhabi earlier this week.
This Kremlin narrative – presented without any evidence – is not particularly surprising, as Pjotr Sauer explained earlier (10:19).
