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A senior adviser to the President of Ukraine has survived an assassination attempt
Sergei Shafir's driver, who is close to President Zlansky, was wounded by a barrage of automatic fire that hit a car in the Kiev area.
The counsel was not harmed, but authorities did not rule out foreign involvement.
"Sending me a message through hurting my friend is a weakness," Zlansky said
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Ukraine
Volodymyr Zlansky
Reuters
Wednesday, 22 September 2021, 14:59 Updated: 16:25
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The political elite in Ukraine is under pressure.
The car after it was spray-painted, today (Photo: Reuters)
A barrage of auto-firing hit today (Wednesday) the car in which a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zalansky was driving. Kiev said it was an assassination attempt, and Zelsky said it may have been an attempt to get a message across. Authorities did not rule out the involvement of foreign elements, including Russia, which was quick to deny any connection to the incident.
The adviser, Sergei Shafir, was not injured in the shooting, but police said his driver was injured after more than a dozen bullets hit the car while driving near the town of Lesniki, on the outskirts of the capital Kiev. A local TV station reported that at least 19 bullet holes could be seen on the driver's side.
Police said in a statement that they had opened a criminal investigation on suspicion of premeditated murder. Zalansky, who is attending the UN General Assembly in New York, said he did not know yet who was responsible for the attack, which shocked the country's political elite.
"I still do not know who was behind it," Zlansky said.
"To convey a message to me through shooting at my friend is a weakness."
Shafir is close to Zlanski and heads a group of advisers to the president.
He was taken to a safe haven after the shooting.
Zalansky promised to increase the pace of planned reforms and not succumb to threats.
"It does not affect the strength of our team, the path I have chosen with my team - to change, to clean up our economy, to fight crime and influential financial groups," the Jewish president said.
"This (attempted assassination) will not affect. On the contrary, the citizens of Ukraine have given me a mandate to make changes."
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Revenge of the oligarchs?
Zlansky (center) alongside Shafir after his inauguration, 2019 (Photo: Reuters)
Zalansky, a former comedian who became a politician, came to power promising to fight oligarchs and corruption. Mikhail Podolyak, one of his advisers, said the assassination attempt may be related to his fight against the oligarchs. He promised that tougher measures would be taken against the oligarchs after the attack.
"This is a particularly open, deliberate and violent attack, with automatic weapons, it is nothing but an attempt to assassinate a senior member of the team," he said. "Of course we are linking this attack to an aggressive and even belligerent campaign against the active policy of the state leader."
Alexander Korniinko, chairman of Zalanski's party, said Russian involvement in the assassination attempt could not be ruled out. With Russia.
"We are aware of its ability to plan attacks in different countries," Kornienko told reporters about Russia, which in recent years has been accused of a series of assassinations or assassination attempts on political rivals across Europe, including using nerve gas.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said hints of Russian involvement were baseless.
"They have nothing to do with reality," he said.
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