Author of the photo, UNIAN
Photo Caption,
Serhiy Shefir held the position of first assistant to the president since May 2019
March 30, 2024
Volodymyr Zelenskyi dismissed Serhii Shefir from the post of first assistant to the President of Ukraine, which he had held since May 2019.
The dismissal decree appeared on the president’s website on March 30.
Serhii Shefir is one of the closest confidants in President Zelenskyi’s entourage and a personal friend since his youth and “Kvartal-95 Studio”.
The official reasons for the president’s decision are currently unknown.
In the last few days, Volodymyr Zelenskyi has made significant changes in his team. People who came to power with the president back in 2019 lost their positions.
On March 26, they published a decree on the dismissal of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. He was replaced by the ex-head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Oleksandr Lytvynenko.
On Friday evening, Zelenskyi also dismissed two deputy heads of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak – Oleksiy Dniprov and Andriy Smirnov.
Elena Kovalska and Iryna Mudra, who are said to be close to Andriy Yermak, were appointed in their place.
Serhii Shefir was next.
According journalists, this decision may also be related to the influence of the head of the President’s Office. Although after the assassination attempt on Serhiy Shefir in 2021, he actually withdrew from business and ceased to be an attorney in contacts, including with oligarchs.
Who is Serhii Shefir?
Serhii Shefir is 59 years old.
Like Volodymyr Zelenskyi – he was born in Kryvyi Rih, where in the 1990s he and his older brother Boris wrote jokes for various KVN teams. Including the “95th quarter” of the future president of Ukraine.
It is believed that it was Serhiy and Boris Shefiry who invited Zelensky to the Zaporizhzhia – Kryvyi Rih – Transit KVN team, which later won the top Russian KVN league.
Later, Serhii Shefir became a film producer and screenwriter.
“theBabel” publication wrote in 2019, that the Shefiry brothers lived in the same apartment with Zelensky in Moscow.
U declarations Volodymyr Zelensky for 2023 states that he is a co-owner of an apartment in Kyiv with Serhiy Shefir and his brother. And Shefira’s wife is a co-owner of a non-residential premises with Olena Zelenska.
Author of the photo, UNIAN
Photo Caption,
Zelenskyi, Andriy Bohdan and Serhiy Shefir at the meeting of “Servants of the People” in 2019
After returning to Ukraine, Zelenskyi and Shefir jointly founded the Kvartal 95 studio, which turned into a multimillion-dollar business.
The fact that the new president transferred his share in “Kvartal” to them speaks of the closeness of the Shefirs to Zelenskyi.
Serhii Shefir was called one of the possible contenders for the position of the head of the presidential administration, but he himself said that a “well-versed person in law” should sit in this chair.
As a result, the Office of the President was headed by Andriy Bohdan, who was then replaced by Andriy Yermak, and Volodymyr Zelenskyi made Serhiy Shefir his first assistant a few days after the inauguration.
Boris Shefir did not go into politics and remained engaged in issues of “Kvartal 95”.
Although it was scandalous interview “Media Detector”, in which he called Vladimir Putin “a reasonable person” with whom you can negotiate, and also criticized the approval of the language law and quotas for the Ukrainian language.
Author of the photo, UNIAN
Photo Caption,
President Zelenskyi with Serhii Shefir and Andriy Yermak
Even before his appointment at Bankova, Serhii Shefir talked about his status in Zelenskyi’s team like this.
“I am indifferent to positions and portfolios, but I am not indifferent to Zelensky. How do I see my task? I want him to remain a human being, becoming a politician. I think this is the most important thing. I will be where I am needed, and I know that he is me won’t let you down.”
In the Office of the President, among other things, he dealt with contacts with big business in Ukraine and abroad.
“We don’t like sponsors. We like investors who invest money and then receive dividends,” Serhiy Shefir said in 2019.
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Before the full-scale invasion, Serhii Shefir admitted that he did not support the “persecution of artists”, in particular Russian ones: “Porechenkov or Okhlobystin – yes, it is understandable, they definitely need to be persecuted. But when normal people are attacked…”
He also added that Zelenskyi’s team has nothing to be ashamed of the series “Matchmakers”: “In general, “Matchmakers” is a worthy product. We have no reason to be ashamed of it. Do you know why the series was so popular? All the stories are from life. All this happened in our families…”
An attempt
On September 22, 2021, Serhiy Shefir was attacked.
His car was shot with a machine gun in the Kyiv region, the driver was wounded, but Shefir himself was not injured.
A whole automatic horn was fired into the car.
Shefir was called an “easy target” for such an attempt, his vehicle was not armored and he did not use security.
According to one of the versions, the unknown attackers tried to “say hello” to Zelensky’s entire team.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the President’s Office, believes that Shefir was chosen because he was a member of the team and a friend of Zelensky.
Serhii Shefir himself, talking about the shelling, stated that he was not involved in matters that could cause an attack on him personally.
Photo Caption,
Audi Serhii Shefir was shot with a machine gun
After 2019, Serhiy Shefir reduced his media activity and refused interviews.
At the same time, he regularly accompanied President Zelenskyi on various trips and events.
Back in 2021, information began to appear in the media that Serhiy Shefir had distanced himself from the president – up to the point of possible resignation from the position of first assistant.
But the president’s office denied these rumors.
The head of the pro-presidential faction “Servant of the People” Davyd Arakhamia assumed that the attack on Shefir had a Russian trace.