https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/22/world/europe/ukraine-assassination-attempt.htmlA top adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was shot at on Wednesday while being driven in his car outside Kyiv, in what the authorities said was an assassination attempt.
The adviser, Serhiy Shefir, was not injured in the attack, but the driver of the car was wounded and hospitalized, Irina Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said in a statement that included a picture of the driver’s side of Mr. Shefir’s black Audi riddled with bullets.
“This is serious,” the deputy interior minister, Anton Gerashchenko, said in a brief interview. “It was a real assassination attempt.”
The attack occurred while Mr. Zelensky was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly meeting. He used his speech to denounce the attack, speak out against Russia’s military intervention in eastern Ukraine and rally diplomatic backing for Kyiv.
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Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky, dressed in a blue hoodie and looking suddenly roused from sleep, said in a video message from New York that he considered the attack to be a message to him personally, but insisted that no matter who was behind it, he would not be deterred from efforts to modernize Ukraine’s economy and tackle criminality.
“Saying hello to me by shooting from the woods at the car of my friend is weakness,” Mr. Zelensky said.
The shots appeared to have been fired about 10 a.m. by a person or people who were hidden in the woods by the road, according to investigators. Mr. Shefir’s car was not armored and he did not use any security detail, Mr. Gerashchenko said.
The shooting occurred near the village of Lisnyky, just outside Kyiv, on a highway bordered by woodlands.
There were no suspects and no one had been arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack, according to the authorities.
Ukrainian officials cautioned the public not to speculate about who was behind the brazen morning assault, even as images of the bullet-ridden car were broadcast across the country. There were at least 10 bullet holes in the vehicle.
