CLOSE CALL

Ukrainian Presidential Aide Ambushed in Apparent Assassination Attempt

Serhiy Shefir was unscathed in the attack, but his driver was wounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top aide was targeted in an apparent assassination attempt outside Kyiv on Wednesday morning, authorities said. The aide, Serhiy Shefir, was not injured after gunmen opened fire on the vehicle he was in near the village of Lesnyky. But the driver was hurt and was receiving treatment at the scene, according to Ukrainskaya Pravda. Sources cited by the newspaper said the car was struck by at least 10 bullets, with the attackers apparently unleashing a volley of automatic gunfire from a nearby forest. A manhunt is underway for the attackers, and investigators are working at the scene along with the country’s prosecutor general. Zelensky, who is in the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, has not yet commented publicly on the attack.