MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy, who lives in Spain, accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky of ordering the assassination attempt against him that occurred earlier this morning.
"Judging by the hysteria in our ‘media’ and how the [would-be] assassin was allowed to get away, with roads conveniently left unblocked and with minimal questioning of the eyewitnesses, no other option, except for Zelensky, is on the table," the blogger said on his Telegram channel.
"Eyewitnesses came up who saw the shooter, who know what he looks like. They contacted my security detail. The police have not questioned them. What’s more, no one living in the area where the shooting took place was questioned," Shariy said.
He accused the Spanish police of inaction.
"Currently, my security detail is looking for the weapons and ammo casings on its own. As of this point, the police have not blocked the roads. This should have been done immediately, but no one reacted. […] People living near the site of the attack were also questioned by myself and my security team," the blogger said.
He added that less than one week ago, he provided Spanish law enforcement authorities with an "audio recording of the assassination order," and "the name of a person connected to the instigators" as well as that of another relevant person. The blogger claims that the attempted hit on him was "ordered" for 100,000 euros.
Earlier, Shariy claimed that an assassination attempt was carried out against him; the car that he was riding in, together with his wife, was hit by automatic gunfire. Meanwhile, neither the Spanish National Police nor Catalonian law enforcement agencies provided any comments on the incident to TASS. The law enforcement agencies’ press offices said that they were unaware of the incident.
Shariy is on a wanted list in Ukraine, where he faces a life prison sentence over charges of treason. For the past few years, he has been living in Spain. In 2022, he was detained in Spain on a request by the Ukrainian authorities. In October 2022, a Spanish court closed the extradition case against the blogger, stating that the Spanish authorities had not received the relevant documents for processing Shariy’s extradition on time.
This is not the first incident involving Shariy in Spain. On October 24, 2023, unknown assailants threw several Molotov cocktails at the blogger’s house in Tarragona Province. No one was injured, and the police opened an investigation. Later, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Shariy had repeatedly received threats. According to the report, the blogger had previously been publicly threatened by "Ukrainian neo-Nazi groups."