Jewish aide to Ukraine’s president survives assassination attempt
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a ceremony welcoming Ukrainians who were freed by pro-Russian rebels during a prisoner exchange at the Boryspil Airport outside Kyiv, Dec. 29, 2019. By Sergei Chuzavkov/AFP via Getty Images
(JTA) — A Jewish aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky survived an assassination attempt near Kyiv on Wednesday.
Several shots were fired at the car of Sergey Nachmanovich Shefir, a former television producer whom Zelensky appointed as his top aide. Shefir was not injured but his driver was hit by three bullets in his leg and is being treated in a hospital for non-critical injuries.
Shefir and his brother Boris both worked with Zelensky, who is also Jewish, when they were all part of the show “Servant of the People.” That show starring Zelensky launched his political career, and he was elected president in 2019.
Police are investigating the incident, which they say could be an attempt at intimidation by local oligarchs or the work of Russia, which has had a territorial dispute with Ukraine since 2014.
Zelenskyy, who is now in New York and is preparing to speak at the UN General Assembly, recorded a video message in which he called Shefir a close friend and promised a “strong response.”
—
The post Jewish aide to Ukraine’s president survives assassination attempt appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
