Gunmen target Ukraine president aide in 'assassination attempt'

Gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on a car carrying a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday, in what officials said was an attempted assassination in response to his crackdown on oligarchs.

Sergiy Shefir, a 57-year-old former scriptwriter and longtime associate of comedian-turned-politician Zelensky, was reported to have escaped without serious injury.

An adviser to the interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, said on Facebook that the attack took place around 10am.

He said Shefir's driver was "seriously injured" and that police had launched a special operation in the area.

"Unidentified individuals fired about 10 shots from a 7.62 caliber automatic weapon," Ukraine's Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said on Facebook.

She said the authorities had opened an attempted murder investigation.

Photos published by officials showed a black Audi with bullet holes along its bonnet and on the driver-side door.

Official reports did not say whether Shefir was injured, but a lawmaker representing Zelensky's "Servant of the People" party said he was fine.

"I briefly spoke to him, everything is fine, he is alive and well," Davyd Arakhamia was quoted by Russia's RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

He said police had taken Shefir to a "safe" location.

Another aide in Zelensky's office said the attack was an attempt to "demonstrably kill a key member of the team," police said.