Another important mission for Alpha was to provide security for the Soviet leadership against enemy special forces in times of crisis or war.

Of the initial 120 KGB candidates, only 15 passed the rigorous selection course to establish the first detachment under the leadership of commander Peter Feliksovich Zakrevskii.

In April 2014, in the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity, when Ukraine's Alpha snipers were alleged to shoot at the protesters,[7][8] it was purged and reorganised,[9] and soon used by the new government against the pro-Russian separatist forces in the war in Donbas.

Late April 2014 three officers were captured by members of the Donbas People's Militia armed group led by Igor Girkin[a] in the town of Horlivka, after which they were beaten up and shown on Russian television;[10] the SBU spokeswoman said the separatists acted on a tip from infiltrators inside the agency.

[12] During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Alpha group (according to Ukrainian sources) ambushed and wiped out a convoy in northern Kyiv, around Hostomel, composed of Chechen paramilitary (the "Kadyrovtsy") heading to the city.