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Scoop of the day: First presidential aide's car fired at

Scoop of the day: First presidential aide's car fired at

Attack on Shefir

The car of first presidential aide Serhiy Shefir was shot at this morning on the motorway between the Khodosivka and Lisnyky villages in Kyiv Region. While he was left unscathed, his driver sustained gun wounds.

Eleven bullet holes were found on the car. According to Kyiv regional prosecutor Oleksiy Khomenko, a total of 18 shots from an automatic weapon were made.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyy praised the driver for not stopping the car right off. "I would like to stress that it was Serhiy Shefir the attackers wanted to kill," he said.

Shefir, for his part, denied any internal rifts in the president's team and suggested that the attack was an attempt "to intimidate the top echelons of power, but one must understand that the president has strong will, he is not the one to get scared".

The police are considering three versions: Shefir's activities as a state official, an attempt to put pressure on the country's leadership, an attempt to destabilize the political situation, including with the participation of foreign secret services.

Sources in law enforcement told LB.ua that the attack is likely to have been carried out by an amateur because his shooting was chaotic.

Zelenskyy's reaction

In a video recorded from New York, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged a "strong response" to the attack.

"I honestly don't know who is behind this. Yet. What are these forces? They can be internal or external. But I do not consider them strong because sending me greetings by shooting at my friend's car from the woods is a weakness. But response will be strong," he said. "It does not affect the strength of our team. It does not affect the course - I have chosen with our team - towards change, to de-shadow the economy, to fight crime and large influential financial and industrial groups. Quite the opposite."

Zelenskyy's New York trip

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in New York.

"Volodymyr Zelensky asked Jens Stoltenberg to facilitate the release of almost 450 Ukrainians held in temporarily uncontrolled territories and in Russia. The president stressed that over the past two years, Ukraine has virtually completed the formation of a new integrated national security system, which is fully built to the allied countries' standards," his office said.

Speaking to journalists, Zelenskyy suggested that NATO would be weaker without Ukraine so it is "the alliance's choice now".

Economic security

Parliament has postponed the liquidation of the tax police and the launch of the Economic Security Bureau by two months.

Coronavirus

Vaccination threshold requirements will not be applicable to kindergartens and primary schools and they will be able to continue operation despite Ukraine's transfer to the yellow quarantine zone.

Health Minister Viktor Lyashko has announced that coronavirus vaccination will become mandatory for teachers and officials.

Ukraine reported 6,754 new Covid-19 cases this morning.

Human rights

Parliament has passed the bill on prevention and counteraction to anti-Semitism.

Crime

Local businessman Mykhaylo Kozlov was shot dead in a Cherkasy café today.

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