A Russian general who has been accused by Ukraine of ordering a missile strike against a children’s hospital in Kyiv has reportedly been shot in northwestern Russia on Thursday. The Russian Investigative Committee said it opened an investigation into the attempted murder of a military service member who was shot several times in the city of Engels in the Saratov region on Thursday. While the committee did not name the man, Russian telegram channels widely reported it was Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, the commander of the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ Long-Range Aviation. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky later alluded to the attack in his daily address, saying “we will also carry out our own asymmetric operations in response” to Russia. “The Russian criminals did not hide - they will be found. And today brings another confirmation of this fact, a confirmation in the Saratov region,” he added. Engels serves as the home base of Russia’s strategic bombers fleet, including the Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft that Moscow uses to launch long-range cruise missiles against Ukraine. Varpakhovich has been accused by Ukraine of ordering a missile strike against Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt hospital in July 2024. The attack killed three people – one of them a child who was wounded in the strike and died a few days later – and injured dozens others. Several of the hospital’s departments, including the intensive care units, the oncology and surgical wings, the toxicology and trauma centre, were damaged or destroyed. The hospital said afterwards that hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated when the air raid alarm was raised indicating an incoming an strike. But some, including three patients undergoing a heart surgery, were still there when the missile hit about an hour later. Varpakhovich has also been sanctioned by multiple countries and the European Union over his role in the 2024 While Ukraine has not commented on the incident, Varpakhovych has recently been on Kyiv’s radar. The Security Service of Ukraine and the country’s Prosecutor General formally charged him with war crimes three days ago, saying he ordered the long-range aviation units under his command to launch a Kh-101 air-to-ground cruise missile against the hospital. The Russian investigative committee said the serviceman survived the attack and was transported to a hospital. Local media reported that he was flown to Moscow for treatment after being shot in the face and the torso. High-profile targets Varpakhovich is the latest of high-profile military officials targeted in apparent assassinations in Russia over the past few years. Moscow has pointed finger at Ukraine over these killings, but Kyiv has never officially acknowledged playing a role in any of them. Igor Kirillov, a general in charge of the Russian military’s nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces, was killed in December 2024 when an explosive device planted on a scooter was detonated near him. Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational department of the General Staff and Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, who ran the armed forces operational training department, were both killed in car explosions in Moscow last year. Others who have been killed include the founder of a pro-Russian militia group, Armen Sarkisyan, described by Ukraine as a “criminal mastermind,” who died following a bombing in central Moscow, in February 2025.
