Serhiy Shefir, the first aide of President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Kyiv Post that his meeting with two associates of Rudolph Giuliani in May was “neither long nor informative.”
Shefir’s account of the meeting contradicts that of Lev Parnas, who with Igor Fruman was indicted on campaign finance charges in the United States.
Parnas said, through his lawyer, that he and Fruman told Shefir that the incoming Ukrainian president had to announce an investigation into U.S. President Donald Trump’s rival, former Vice President Joseph Biden. Otherwise, according to Parnas, the U.S. would freeze military aid to Ukraine, and Vice President Mike Pence wouldn’t attend Zelensky’s upcoming inauguration on May 20.
The statement, reported by the New York Times on Nov. 10, made waves because it is the only explicit account when roughly $400 million of military aid to Ukraine was directly linked to political demands by Trump’s inner circle.
However, Shefir says he does not remember this.
According to him, the main subject of the brief meeting was different: Parnas and Fruman requested that Zelensky meet with Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer.
“We said that we will gladly meet with him, but only officially, after the inauguration, and that there can be no meeting now,” Shefir told the Kyiv Post by phone on Nov. 11.
Shefir said that Fruman and Parnas told him they were arranging the meeting because “they want to help this country,” since they are from Ukraine themselves. Shefir was unconvinced.
“The meeting took place before we started at the job, and we didn’t get very deep into what their ‘help’ would be. These were general words said over a cup of tea,” he said.
Shefir also said he didn’t understand who exactly Parnas and Fruman were, only that they represented Giuliani.
“We didn’t perceive them as representatives of the White House,” he said. “Even now, I don’t understand what their role was. It was a meeting of private citizens with a private citizen.”
As for the alleged threat to withdraw Pence from the inauguration ceremony, Shefir said he didn’t remember it.
“Back then, I didn’t even know that name,” he said of the U.S. vice president.
Pence didn’t attend Zelensky’s inauguration on May 20 after Trump instructed him not to go. The previous inauguration of a Ukrainian president, that of Petro Poroshenko in 2014, was attended by Biden.
Shefir is a long-time business partner and friend of Zelensky. With his brother Borys and Zelensky, Shefir co-founded the entertainment company Kvartal 95. After Zelensky was elected president, he appointed Shefir his first aide — a high-ranking position in the presidential administration that historically has rivaled the chief of staff. Shefir has also continued to work in Kvartal 95’s business.
