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DEVELOPING HISTORY
An official said the attack was part of a “militant campaign” against President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attempt to attack the oligarchs.
A car carrying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s main aide, in what a senior official described as an assassination attempt, was shot at.
More than 10 bullets hit the car in Wednesday’s incident near the village of Lesnyky outside the capital Kiev, according to a police statement.
The driver of the vehicle was injured in the incident.
The police statement said that a criminal case on suspicion of premeditated murder has been opened.
A senior lawmaker said Zelenskyy’s aide Serhiy Shefir was not injured, Reuters reported. Shefir is one of the president’s closest officials, leading a group of advisers.
Zelenskyy, who came to power on a promise to confront the country’s oligarchs and fight corruption, is currently in the United States to attend the United Nations General Assembly.
Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the motivation for the shooting could be the president’s attempts to prey on the oligarchs.
“We of course associate this attack with an aggressive and even militant campaign against the active policy of the Head of State”, declared Podolyak, quoted by Interfax Ukraine.
Podolyak told Reuters that “the overt, deliberate and extremely violent assault with automatic weapons cannot be characterized any differently than the attempted murder of a key member of the team.”
He said Zelenskyy would not be put off by the incident.
“We stress that the president’s policy aimed at fundamental transformation of the state will remain unchanged,” Podolyak said.
This week, the Ukrainian parliament is due to debate a presidential law aimed at reducing the influence of the oligarchs.
This is a developing story. More details to follow.
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