A high-profile general in Russia's military has been shot several times and wounded in Moscow.

Lt Gen Vladimir Alexeyev was immediately taken to hospital after the attack in a residential building on the north-western outskirts of the city and his condition is unknown.

Alexeyev is a senior figure in the main directorate of Russia's military general staff (GRU) and is the latest high-ranking military figure to have been targeted in the capital since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began almost four years ago.

He was placed under European Union sanctions after the GRU was accused of being behind a 2018 nerve agent attack in Salisbury in the UK.

"The victim has been hospitalised at one of the city's hospitals," said Svetlana Petrenko of Russia's Investigations Committee, which said it opened a criminal case for attempted murder.

Alexeyev has played a significant role during the war in Ukraine, taking part in talks with Ukraine during the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022.

He was also sent to negotiate with the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who led a short and bloody mutiny in June 2023.

It is not yet known who was behind the shooting on Friday morning in a residential block on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow.

Ukraine has claimed some attacks on Russia military figures in the past. 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. Ukraine's SBU intelligence had said it was behind the attack.

Lt Gen Kirillov had been in charge of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection troops.