A gunman shot a Russian air force general outside his home in Russia on Thursday. Ukraine had accused him three days earlier of ordering the missile strike on Kyiv’s Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, formally charging him with war crimes.
An attacker on a motorcycle fired twice at Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, who commands the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation, near his registered address in Engels. The city sits roughly 850 kilometers southeast of Moscow and is home to a major Russian strategic bomber base. Varpakhovich survived, and crews evacuated him by air to Moscow, where doctors described his condition as serious.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened an attempted murder case without officially naming the victim, though several Telegram channels focused on Russia’s military named him as Varpakhovich. In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referenced the shooting without confirming Ukrainian involvement, promising “asymmetric operations in response” to Russia.
Ukraine’s security service and prosecutor general charged Varpakhovich in absentia over a Kh-101 cruise missile strike on the hospital, alleging he personally directed the long-range bomber units below him to carry it out. The missile tore through several departments, including intensive care, oncology, and surgery, killing multiple people and wounding dozens more, among them children. Ukraine’s health ministry said the facility was treating 627 children when the missile hit it.
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The European Union and several other countries had already sanctioned Varpakhovich over the strike. Unknown attackers have shot or killed several Russian military officials in incidents Moscow has blamed on Ukraine, and Varpakhovich is the latest. Kyiv has consistently declined to take credit for any of the attacks.
