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Ukraine promises 'strong response' to assassination attempt on president's aide
Giulia Carbonaro
Ukraine's Interior Ministry released a photograph showing the bullet marks on the car of Chief Aide Sergei Shefir, in Kyiv. /Handout/UKRAINIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY PRESS SERVICES/AFP

Ukraine's Interior Ministry released a photograph showing the bullet marks on the car of Chief Aide Sergei Shefir, in Kyiv. /Handout/UKRAINIAN INTERIOR MINISTRY PRESS SERVICES/AFP

 

Gunmen opened fire on a car containing a senior aide to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky near the capital Kyiv, in an attack Ukrainian officials have described as an assassination attempt.

According to police reports, 10 shots were fired from an automatic weapon at the vehicle of Sergiy Shefir, a 57-year-old former scriptwriter and long-time associate of comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelensky.

Shefir escaped the attack without any serious injury, while his driver was "seriously injured," according to Anton Herashchenko, a former member of the Ukraine parliament, who was also the target of an assassination attempt in 2017.

"Unidentified individuals fired about 10 shots from a 7.62 caliber automatic weapon," Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook.

The case is being investigated as attempted murder.

Zelensky, currently in New York for the UN General Assembly, promised a "strong response" to the attack on his aide, though he said it's not yet known who's behind the assassination attempt.

"This does not affect the course that I have chosen with my team – towards changes, towards de-shadowing our economy, towards fighting criminals and large, influential financial groups," Zelensky added.

 

In this file photo taken on April 19, 2019, the chief aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sergei Shefir is pictured on the right, next to Zelensky and his wife Olena. /Sergei Supinsky/AFP

In this file photo taken on April 19, 2019, the chief aide to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Sergei Shefir is pictured on the right, next to Zelensky and his wife Olena. /Sergei Supinsky/AFP

 

Mykhailo Podolyak, another aide in Zelensky's office said the attack was an attempt to "demonstrably kill a key member of the team." He told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency the attack was in response to "politics directed at limiting the traditional influence of shadowy oligarchs."

Another aide, Sergiy Nykyforov, added that no "insidious actions" would affect the president's plans to "de-shadow and de-oligarch" Ukraine.

Source(s): AFP

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