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Ukrainian President vows "strong response" to assassination attempt of his aide

Vladimir Zelensky noted that he didn't know yet what kind of forces could be behind the incident

KIEV, September 22. /TASS/. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky promised a "strong response" to the assassination attempt on his aide Sergey Shefir. He also stressed that this incident will not affect the course of his fight with influential financial groups in his country.

Zelensky is now in New York where he participating in the UN General Assembly.

"It is believed that it was an assassination attempt, and after speaking at the UN General Assembly, I will immediately go to the capital [of Ukraine]," he said on Wednesday in a video address to the Ukrainian public.

"Who is behind this - I’ll be frank - I don’t know yet, and what kind of forces there can be - internal or external. But I don’t consider them forces, because it is a weakness to send me greetings with a shot from the forest at my friend’s car. But the response will be strong," he stressed. The President also assured that the incident "does not affect the strength of his team."

"It does not affect the course that I have chosen with my team to change, to bring our economy from the shade, to fight against criminals, large influential financial groups because it is the people of Ukraine who gave me this mandate for change," he concluded.

Earlier on Wednesday there was an attempt on the life of the Ukrainian president's first aide, Sergey Shefir. While he was not harmed in the incident, his driver suffered gunshot wounds.

According to the Ukrainian media resource Strana's sources, the driver is in intensive care in a serious condition.

According to the Interior Ministry, 18 shots were fired in total.

Ukraine's Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said on her Facebook page that criminal proceedings had been launched over an "attempted murder of two or more persons."

Shefir is regarded as a long-standing friend of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. According to media reports, he is responsible for drafting the head of state's daily schedule. He is the founder and director of the show business studio Kvartal-95.

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