Russian lieutenant general shot by assailant in Moscow, investigators say
Russian Police officers walk next to the entrance of a residential building on Volokolamsk Highway, where an assassination attempt on General Lieutenant Alexeyev (Alekseev) was made earlier in the morning, on February 6, 2026, in Moscow, . (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev, a high-ranking Defense Ministry official, was shot and injured in an ambush-style attack on Friday in a residential area of Moscow, according to the Investigative Committee of Russia and state-affiliated media.
“According to investigators, on Feb. 6, 2026, in a residential building located on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow, an as-yet-unidentified individual fired several shots at a man and fled the scene,” Svetlana Petrenko, the committee’s spokesperson, said in Russian on the Telegram messaging app.
The victim was transported to a local hospital, Petrenko said. She did not immediately describe the extent of his injuries.
State-affiliated news outlet TASS identified the victim as Alexeyev, adding that a criminal investigation had been launched.
“Special services are currently doing their job,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. “Of course, this has been reported to the head of state. We wish the general a speedy recovery.”
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, claimed without evidence that Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, may be responsible for the shooting. He suggested that it may be an attempt by Ukraine to disrupt negotiations between Washington, Kyiv and Moscow.
“The regime is ready to do anything to convince its Western sponsors not to lag behind the United States in their desire to derail the process of achieving a just settlement,” Lavrov told reporters at a briefing on Friday.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Dragana Jovanovic and Anna Sergeeva contributed to this report.
Large areas of Lviv are facing emergency blackouts following targeted Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. (Mykola Tys/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Governors of two Russian regions bordering Ukraine said Tuesday that residents are facing sustained power outages as a result of Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure, as both sides continue long-range strikes in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s western Belgorod region said in posts to Telegram that power and heating outages had forced hundreds of people to rely on “heating points.”
“Unfortunately, rolling blackouts are inevitable,” Gladkov said, noting that Belgorod city will be among the areas subject to unpredictable outages.
Gov. Alexander Khinshtein of the neighboring Kursk region said that 28,000 customers were without power as a result of “another series of cowardly attacks on our territory.”
Both regions have been subject to regular Ukrainian drone, missile and artillery attacks. Both have also seen Ukrainian ground incursions during the nearly 4-year-old war.
Recent months have seen both Russia and Ukraine focus attacks on energy infrastructure targets. In Ukraine, millions have faced rolling outages as a result of months of Russian missile and drone strikes on energy targets all across the country. Moscow, Kyiv has said, is trying to freeze Ukrainians into submission.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, has framed long-range Ukrainian strikes as “terrorist attacks.”
Zelenskyy on Sunday defended Ukraine’s retaliatory attacks inside Russia, describing the Russian energy sector as “a legitimate target.”
“We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy,” Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. “He sells this energy. He sells oil. So is it energy, or is it a military target? Honestly, it’s the same thing. He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians.”
Zelenskyy said that left Ukraine with two options: “We either build weapons and strike their weapons. Or we strike the source where their money is generated and multiplied. And that source is their energy sector. That is what is happening. All of this is a legitimate target for us.”
The nightly exchange of drones continued on Monday night.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 125 drones into the country overnight, of which 110 were shot down or suppressed. Thirteen drones impacted across six locations, the air force said in a post to Telegram.
Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, said in a post to social media that two people were killed and seven people injured by a Russian strike in the city of Slovyansk, close to the front line.
At least four people were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said. Among the injured was a 1-year-old child, the ministry said.
Oleh Kiper, the governor of the southern Odesa region, said in a post to Telegram that Russian drones attacked energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least three communities partially without power.
The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least six Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in the Black Sea city of Gelendzhik and in the western city of Kaluga.
Peace maneuvers are ongoing against the backdrop of long-range strikes and Russia’s attritional offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Monday night that proposed post-war Western security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from repeated Russian aggression are “ready.”
“There is no alternative to security. There is no alternative to peace. There is no alternative to rebuilding our country,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president also said there will be “significant international events this week — on defense and security.”
“Our negotiating team is working every single day on the documents and proposals that could deliver results at the upcoming meetings,” Zelenskyy said.
“Most importantly, our partners must be aligned the same way we are in Ukraine: peace is needed, and reliable security guarantees are the only real foundation for peace and for preventing the Russians from breaking agreements through strikes or hybrid operation of some kind,” he added.
President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro speaks during a military ceremony commemorating the 200th anniversary of the presentation of the ‘Sword of Peru’ to Venezuelan independence hero Simón Bolívar on November 25, 2025, in Caracas, Venezuela. (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. “successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela” and said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were “captured and flown out of the Country.”
The announcement on Trump’s social media platform came shortly before 4:30 a.m. Saturday a few hours after several explosions were heard in Venezuela’s capital city of Caracas, witnesses said, and photos and videos showed plumes of smoke and a large fireball in the night sky.
Trump said the operation was carried out in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement and said he would hold a news conference at 11 a.m. from Mar-a-Lago.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts” on a slew of charges in New York, including “narco-terrorism conspiracy” and “cocaine importation conspiracy” as well as weapons charges. Maduro has faced the charges in New York for years.
Sources familiar with the matter told ABC News Maduro was being flown to New York. While the sources did not specify where Maduro will be held, defendants awaiting trial in federal court in Manhattan are customarily held at MDC-Brooklyn.
The operation that led to Maduro’s capture was carried out by the Army’s Delta Force after the CIA had identified the leader’s precise location, according to two people familiar with the operation. Delta Force is an elite special operations group of soldiers trained in secret counterterrorism operations and hostage rescues.
One person told ABC News that Trump had given the green light to capture Maduro several days ago and troops were ready to strike on Christmas Day, but were delayed due to military airstrikes in Nigeria against ISIS. Subsequent opportunities were postponed partly due to weather, the person said.
CBS first reported the details on the operation.
In a brief phone interview with The New York Times, President Trump celebrated what he called the success of the mission to capture Maduro, who the U.S. has considered the head of a foreign terrorist organization since a November designation.
“A lot of good planning and lot of great, great troops and great people,” Trump told The New York Times. “It was a brilliant operation, actually.”
When asked whether he had sought congressional authorization for the operation or what would come next for Venezuela, Trump said he would address those matters during his news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday morning.
‘No further action’ anticipated
Republican Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, said in a post on X that he spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio over the phone about the actions being taken in Venezuela after initially asking “what, if anything, might constitutionally justify this action in the absence of a declaration of war or authorization for the use of military force.”
According to Lee, Rubio said that Maduro had been “arrested by U.S. personnel to stand trial on criminal charges in the United States,” and that the “kinetic action” was taken to protect those executing the warrant.
He also said that Rubio told him he anticipates “no further action in Venezuela now that Maduro is in U.S. custody.”
“This was an incredibly dangerous operation to conduct,” said ABC Contributor Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer and senior Pentagon official. “It required precise intelligence, detailed planning and flawless execution by these Delta operators and all the support, especially the [Joint Special Operations Command] air component, to pull it off in the manner that they did.”
Senate and House Republicans praised Trump’s actions, with Sen. Rick Scott, of Florida saying “a new day is here for Venezuela and Latin America” in a post on X and Sen. Tom Cotton, of Arkansas saying Maduro “wasn’t just an illegitimate dictator; he also ran a vast drug-trafficking operation.”
But the action was criticized by Democrats.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, blasted Trump’s move, calling it the “second unjustified war in my life time” in a post on X. “This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year. There is no reason for us to be at war with Venezuela.”
The latest events come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela including a build-up of U.S. military forces in the Caribbean and the targeting of alleged drug-smuggling boats.
Some 15,000 U.S. military personnel were in the area as well as the USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier.
The operation also comes a short time after the first-known land strike carried out against a dock where Trump said drugs were being loaded onto boats.
International reaction
The Venezuelan government issued a statement condemning what it called “the grave military aggression perpetrated by the current government of the United States of America” in Caracas and the states of Miranda, Aragua and La Guaira.
In addition, President Nicolas Maduro ordered the implementation of national defense plans, and declared a “state of External Disturbance throughout the national territory,” according to the statement.
Russia condemned the action as “an act of armed aggression against Venezuela” and said it wanted to prevent “further escalation,” according to the country’s Foreign Ministry. And Colombian President Gustavo Petro said “Alert the world: Venezuela has been attacked!” in a post on X. But Trump ally and Argentinian president Javier Milei praised the move.
The U.S. has long considered Maduro the head of a corrupt dictatorial regime. In 2024, Maduro declared victory after a widely disputed presidential election for a third term.
US recently declares Maduro head of terror organization
In an unprecedented move in November, the Trump administration declared Maduro the head of a foreign terrorist organization, citing alleged links to drug cartels, which Maduro denied.
The designation put the Venezuelan leader on the same list as terror networks like al-Qaeda and the Houthi rebel group in Yemen. In August, Rubio announced the U.S. had increased the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest from $25 million to $50 million.
Maduro has faced charges in the United States of narcotics-terrorism since 2020, when federal prosecutors in New York accused him of partnering with a Colombian rebel group to “flood the United States with cocaine in order to undermine the health and wellbeing” of the nation.
The charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons possession conspiracy. Prosecutors allege that Maduro and 14 current or former officials ran a vast criminal enterprise for the last 20 years, using state resources to fuel the international drug trade, including in the U.S.
(NEW YORK) — Two people are dead from a shooting in the Cree First Nation community of Mistissini in northern Quebec, Canada, officials said, adding that it is not considered an active shooter situation.
Two men in their 30s who live in the Mistissini community were found fatally shot in a car overnight, according to Hugues Beaulieu, a spokesperson for Quebec’s provincial police, the Sureté du Québec.
Although no arrest has been made, there is no active threat to the general population, Beaulieu told ABC News, explaining that police are working under the theory that the murders were related to organized crime and drug trade.
The community’s chief, Michael Petawabano, said earlier that all schools and community buildings were closed and residents were advised to remain in their homes.
The remote town has a population of roughly 4,000 people.
“Our hearts are heavy with grief for the lives lost and the families affected by this tragedy,” Petawabano said in a statement. “We ask all community members to remain calm, stay indoors, and cooperate fully with police as they conduct their investigation.”
“The lockdown will remain in effect until law enforcement confirms it is safe to resume normal activities,” Petawabano said.
