The explosion on Saturday at a restaurant in central Moscow likely targeted Russian General Alexander Cheiko, who has coordinated military operations in Syria and Ukraine. He escaped unharmed, but Russian media reports that his daughter was injured in the blast.
According to the National Antiterrorism Committee of Russia, three people lost their lives and over 20 were injured in the terrorist attack at the restaurant located on Barrikadnaya Street in Moscow. The explosive device was brought to the restaurant by a courier woman who was among the deceased, as was the security agent who prevented her from entering the building, as reported by Meduza.
At the time of the explosion, a birthday party for the Russian Aerospace Forces commander, General Alexander Cheiko, was taking place at the Balzi Rossi restaurant on the ground floor of the building. He turned 55 on July 27, and the inscription „Alexander 55” is visible on the restaurant’s stage in a video posted by a guest at the event.
Sources associated with pro-government Telegram channels also confirm that the party at Balzi Rossi was held in honor of the Aerospace Forces commander.
The likely target of the terrorist attack was the Russian general. Although he escaped unharmed, Russian publication Verstka writes that his daughter, Maria Cheiko, may have been injured.
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, several assassinations have targeted Russian military commanders.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet commented on the explosion in central Moscow or any potential involvement in this incident. In his usual video message, Volodymyr Zelensky only mentioned attacks on an oil refinery in the Saratov region and on Wildberries warehouses in the Samara region, without mentioning the terrorist attack in Moscow.
If Alexander Cheiko was indeed the target of the attack, he has become one of the highest-ranking generals targeted in an assassination attempt since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, notes Meduza.
Cheiko was appointed to command the entire Aerospace Forces in May 2026. However, prior to that, not only did he hold the rank of general, but he also held leadership positions in critical and politically important theaters of operations for Russia, commanding the military operation in Syria and the Russian offensive in the Kiev region in 2022.
The general is accused of numerous war crimes and has been included on the sanction lists of the United Kingdom and the European Union, while also being a Hero of Russia (a title he has held since 2020), as mentioned by the cited publication.
What Cheiko Did in Syria
According to open sources consulted by Meduza, Cheiko's name appeared in press reports in connection with two specific episodes. The first concerns his activities in Syria, where he commanded the entire Russian military contingent for over a year—from September 2019 to November 2020, followed by another mission for several months in 2021.
In 2020, Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the actions of the Russian army—including those of Cheiko—in Syria.
Human rights activists claim that during the period when the Russian contingent was under Cheiko's command and that of his two predecessors, at least 1,600 civilians were killed during combat operations, especially near the city of Idlib. These incidents include attacks on hospitals carried out while Cheiko was in charge of Russian forces, as reported by Meduza.
In total, Human Rights Watch documented 46 strikes on targets where no enemy personnel or military equipment was detected—a fact that, according to the organization, rules out the possibility that these attacks on civilian targets were accidental. However, human rights defenders have not been able to uncover specific details linking the operations to orders issued by Cheiko.
Accusations of illegal attacks on schools and hospitals were raised at meetings of the UN Security Council and during two sessions of the Human Rights Council. Russia had the coordinates of these hospitals and yet conducted attacks against them.
Furthermore, in January 2020, Cheiko personally briefed Putin and General Shoigu, the army chief, on the progress of operations. In these circumstances, it is hard to imagine that he was unaware of the actions of his own troops or that he bears no responsibility for the numerous attacks on civilian targets.
After the operations in Syria, Vladimir Putin awarded Cheiko the title of Hero of Russia in 2020. In June 2022, the UK included him on the list of individuals targeted by sanctions for supporting Bashar al-Assad's regime, without specifying the crimes he is accused of.
What Cheiko Did in Ukraine
There are several details known about the activities of the Russian general as the commander of the forces advancing towards Kiev in February and March 2022.
Numerous war crimes against civilians—documented in Bucea and other localities northwest of Kiev, including extrajudicial executions and acts of torture—were committed by Russian troops under Cheiko's supreme command.
The fact that these occurred during the Russian occupation of the respective localities was demonstrated through numerous independent investigations, including one conducted by Meduza, which published an analysis of video recordings provided by the Ukrainian army.
However, it is not entirely clear to what extent Cheiko was involved in the events that occurred under his command in the occupied territory at that time.
Ukrainian prosecutors lack evidence to prove that Cheiko issued orders for specific crimes. Nevertheless, it is evident that these crimes were committed under his leadership.
Information from open sources consulted by Meduza confirms the following facts:
- In March 2022, before Russian troops withdrew from the Kiev area, Cheiko traveled to the village of Zdvijivka, where a command center was established for the forces advancing towards Kiev from the northwest. There, Cheiko decorated Russian soldiers who participated in the Kiev offensive. "All units, all divisions are acting exactly as they were instructed. They are doing everything right. I am proud of them," he declared in a video recording on March 24.
- It appears that Cheiko himself spent a lot of time in Zdvijivka during the offensive, meaning he could have firsthand knowledge of the situation on the ground. In the summer of 2022, when Associated Press journalists were conducting an in-depth investigation into the crimes committed by Russian troops near Kiev, locals recognized the general in photographs.
- AP journalists established that extrajudicial executions of at least three individuals took place in a house in Zdvijivka, a locality frequented by Russian troops.
- After examining copies of Russian offensive plans, RUSI, a London-based organization, claims that the order to block and destroy "nationalist resistance" during the offensive near Kiev was issued at the leadership level, not by those executing the operations. Soldiers used lists compiled by Russian intelligence services and carried out clearance operations, searching neighborhoods to identify and neutralize anyone who could pose a threat. According to Jack Watling, a senior researcher at RUSI who provided battle plans to AP journalists, these orders were elaborated at the level of General Cheiko, meaning he saw and signed them.
- In 2025, the SBU released a previously unknown audio recording in which an individual—presumed to be Alexander Cheiko—is heard giving orders in March 2022 for strikes on localities west of Kiev: the town of Malyn and the village of Teterevskoe. Specifically, he instructs the attack aircraft crews to "plan a strike on the village of Teterevskoe for 05:30; it must be wiped off the face of the earth." In addition to the air forces, the plan involved the use of multiple rocket launch systems—such as Grad, Uragan, and similar launchers designed for surface bombardments.
T.D.