Major General Nikolai Varpakhovich, commander of a heavy bomber division and charged in absentia by Ukraine over the 2024 Okhmatdyt children's hospital strike, was shot twice by a motorbike gunman near Engels airbase and airlifted to Moscow in serious condition.

Maj. Gen. Nikolai Varpakhovich, 56, commander of Russia's 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division, was reported to be in 'critical condition.'

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.