Shefir Sergey Nakhimovich
Official biography
Producer, screenwriter, co-founder and co-owner of a number of Zelensky’s business projects, including Kvartal-95. Currently, First Assistant to President Zelensky.
Born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, on May 25, 1964.
Graduated from the Kryvyi Rih Mining Institute (specialty “Underground Mechanics”).
In the 2000s, he took part in KVN games as a team member and also wrote lyrics for major league teams (Kryvyi Rih Spiana, Zaporizhzhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit).
1995 — organizes a KVN festival in Kryvyi Rih together with his brother Borys, invites Zelensky to participate in Zaporizhzhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit.
Later, together with his brother, he wrote texts for the KVN teams Minsk, Makhachkala Vagabonds, Zaporizhzhia-Kryvyi Rih-Transit, 95th Quarter, Team of the Twentieth Century, and Team of the Twenty-First Century. They were the editors of the AMiK leagues and produced the KVN Planet program.
2003 — Together with Zelensky, they decided to create their own media company, Studio Kvartal-95.
He is the screenwriter of such films as “Dine in!”, “Professor in Law”, “New Year’s Matchmakers”, “Legend. Lyudmyla Gurchenko”.
He has produced such projects as The Matchmakers, The Miracle, The Matchmakers 2, The Matchmakers 3, Like Cossacks…, The Matchmakers 4, New Year’s Matchmakers, The Matchmakers 5, I’ll Be There, 8 First Dates, Rzhevsky vs. Napoleon.
He was one of the leaders of Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s campaign headquarters.
In May 2019, he was appointed First Assistant to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He is married to Larysa Shefir.
He has a son, Mykyta Shefir.
The press has confirmed information about an informal secret meeting between Serhiy Shefir, First Assistant to President Zelenskyy, and oligarch Akhmetov at the latter’s estate near Kyiv. This meeting took place in late August. On that day, Shefir drove an Audi A8 from the President’s office and headed toward the elite village of Koncha Zaspa. At the entrance to the village on the Obukhiv highway, Shefir’s car was met by members of Akhmetov’s personal security detail in a security car. At the end of the highway, both the security car and the car of the First Assistant to the President entered a gas station and stopped. A Mercedes-Maybach followed them there. Shefir got out of the car and got into the back seat of the Mercedes-Maybach, which immediately moved off and headed for the entrance to the estate of oligarch Akhmetov.
In response to Shefir’s behavior, journalists asked him to explain the purpose and essence of the meeting with oligarch Akhmetov. In his turn, Shefir did not give any direct answer, but stated that “I will answer all the questions at once — I do not do anything that contradicts the interests of our country, I do not do anything illegal… period”. Akhmetov’s press service neither explained nor denied the meeting.
For its part, the President’s Office, in terms of Zelenskyy’s awareness of this meeting, explained that in March 2020, the President held a meeting with representatives of big business, which was attended by Akhmetov, and that after that meeting, the President had no other meetings with Akhmetov. At the same time, Zelenskyy did not instruct or authorize his team members to hold such meetings.
At the same time, the president’s office did not forget to mention and thank oligarch Akhmetov for his huge contribution to the Ukrainian economy, which consists in the payment of some of the largest taxes by the oligarch’s enterprises, providing jobs for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, and for the functioning of a charitable foundation aimed at fighting the coronavirus. In March 2020, this foundation allocated a targeted UAH 300 million to fight the pandemic.
The mutual sympathies between the current government and Akhmetov are also evidenced by the loyal position of the oligarch’s Ukraina TV channel, which is loyal to Zelenskyy’s policies.
Given this state of affairs, the information received from one of the big businessmen that Akhmetov secretly finances Zelenskyy’s team to the tune of about $2 million per month can be considered quite reliable.
After his victory in Zelenskyy’s election, Shefir joined the organizing committee for the inauguration.
Shefir is one of the leading authors of the President’s speeches.
To avoid a conflict of interest, before taking office, Zelenskyy transferred to the Shefir brothers his shares in the companies Kinokvartal and Studio Kvartal-95, Animation Studio 95, Kvartal TV, League of Laughter Production Center, Animation Studio 95, and League of Laughter Production Center.
Shefir intends to continue his creative work after completing his civil service.
Shefir’s wife, Larysa Shefir, is a co-owner of Zelari-Fish, a company that processes and preserves fish, crustaceans and shellfish.
Zelenskyi owes his career and position to the Shefir brothers, because since 1995, when they started working together, he became part of a team headed by Shefir and his brother Borys. So under their auspices, Zelensky moved to Moscow, where they lived under the same roof. The reason for his return to Ukraine was the excessive appetites of Zelensky, as the team’s frontman, and the Shefir brothers, who could not tolerate the AMiKovets Maslyakov.
All of the projects Shefir participated in were initially focused on the more developed and profitable media market of the Russian Federation.
The year before last, Shefir was repeatedly spotted visiting the office of oligarch Kolomoisky in the center of Kyiv. Shefir himself not only did not deny these facts, but also stated that the businessman financed his activities: “I was on business for Studio Kvartal-95… I have to live on something, I have to get paid.”
Similar meetings involving members of President Zelenskyy’s team were held privately with Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky, Valeriy Khoroshkovskyy, and Artur Mkhitaryan. Zelenskyy’s first aide Serhiy Shefir, deputy head of the presidential office Andriy Smirnov, Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov participated in these meetings. Kolomoisky himself also confirmed that he periodically meets with Avakov at the Interior Ministry, explaining that they meet as old friends and that he does not personally influence the Ministry’s appointments. In October, Andrii Bohdan’s car was driving into the office of Valerii Khoroshkovskyi, who previously owned the Inter TV channel, who for some time headed the SBU under Yanukovych and worked in Mykola Azarov’s office, and who recently returned to Ukraine.
In September 2020, a large developer, Artur Mkhitaryan, accompanied by the actor of Kvartal-95, Mika Fatalov, was recorded on camera visiting the Government House, and he confirmed the fact of a meeting with Prime Minister Honcharuk to discuss preparations for a forum.
In his interviews with journalists, Shefir repeatedly emphasized that he was working for free, as a volunteer.
Shefir is the second First Assistant to the President in the history of independent Ukraine to have a solid influence and enjoy the attention of the public, as well as the press and journalists. Prior to this, only Kuchma’s aide, Oleksandr Razumkov, was able to achieve the same position and influence. Poroshenko’s aide, diplomat Onyshchenko, did not achieve such popularity from 2014 to 2019…
At the same time, the eldest son of the aforementioned Oleksandr Razumkov, Dmytro, headed the Servant of the People party under Zelenskyy and is currently the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada.
Shefir’s brother and partner, Borys, is also a longtime and close partner of President Zelensky. At the same time, in his statements, he sympathizes with the leader of the aggressor country, Putin, whom he calls a “reasonable person” with whom one can reach an agreement, and has been critical of the adoption of the language law and quotas for the Ukrainian language.
It is also worth noting that the families of President Zelenskyy and his first aide are linked by property rights. Thus, according to Zelenskyy’s declaration, Serhiy Shefir owns, together with him and Borys Shefir, a 254-square-meter apartment in Kyiv, which was purchased in 2007. In 2009, Zelenskyi and Shefir jointly purchased another apartment in Kyiv with an area of almost 200 square meters. Sergiy Shefir’s wife and daughter-in-law jointly own a non-residential property in Kyiv with an area of 337 square meters with the President’s wife Olena Zelenska. In 2017, Shefir himself, together with Olena Zelenska, became the owners of another non-residential premises in Kyiv with an area of 305 square meters.
Mykyta Shefir, the son of the First Assistant to the President, became an assistant to the MP from the Servant of the People party
Mykyta Shefir, the son of First Assistant to the President Shefir, is a permanent fixed-term employee and works as an assistant to Yuriy Kysil, a member of the Servant of the People party who was elected to the 9th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada.
Prior to that, Mykyta Shefir graduated from the Faculty of International Business at the Institute of International Relations of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. During the presidential election, Mykyta Shefir worked in the team of candidate Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Currently, Kysil is the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure and has four assistants (one full-time and three volunteers).
In addition to his political activities, Kysil is the owner of construction companies in Kryvyi Rih. Kryvyi Rih. Kysil owes much of his political career to his long-standing acquaintance with both Shefir brothers, who were students at the Kryvyi Rih Mining University.
Shefir, while already serving as the president’s first aide, was suspected of taking a $5 million bribe from businessman Kaufman.
Thus, according to some reports, a source from the President’s office said that in early December 2020, Odesa businessman Borys Kaufman “paid” Shefir $5 million for the position of Prosecutor of Odesa Region for his man. Subsequently, a Yanukovych-era prosecutor, Ihor Protsenko, was appointed as the prosecutor of Odesa region, giving businessman Kaufman full control over Odesa Customs. By controlling the customs and reaping the benefits of smuggling, Kaufman was able to make an illegal profit of about $2-3 million a day! The appearance of this information in the press seriously stirred up the President’s office, which urgently convened a meeting on the Shefir issue to find out the source of the dirt. In addition, Kaufman was involved in the story of financing the DPR and LPR terrorist organizations.
When asked about his policy toward Russia, Shefir explained that Ukraine would still have to negotiate peace with Russia: “I consider Russia to be an aggressor and a country with which we will have to negotiate peace, because geographically we will not go anywhere from each other. Do you want to live in a state of war for another 100 years? … I believe that there are normal people there with whom we need to continue to communicate, whom we need to influence with information.” Shefir also stated that President Zelensky’s team intends to negotiate with Russian President Putin to resolve the conflict in Donbas. According to Shefir, the return of the occupied Donbas will be impossible if its residents are forced to speak Ukrainian.