Zelenskyy vows response after assassination attempt on Khartiia commander
Zelenskyy: Assassination attempt made on Ihor Obolienskyi (Photo: DR)
Khartiia commander Ihor Obolienskyi was targeted in an
assassination attempt, and the attacker and his accomplice were detained,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on July 31.
“I spoke with Khartiia commander Ihor Obolienskyi. There was
an attempt on Ihor’s life today. The attacker and his accomplice have been
detained. The required procedural steps are underway,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.
Acting SBU chief Oleksandr Poklad briefed Zelenskyy on the
assassination attempt.
“We will definitely respond to this attempted attack on
Ukraine and a Ukrainian commander. I thanked Ihor for his service and hoped he
would strike the occupiers even harder,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Zelenskyy awarded Obolienskyi the title of Hero of Ukraine
on July 15. The president presented him with the Order of the Gold Star during
ceremonies in central Kyiv marking Ukrainian Statehood Day.
In 2025, NV profiled Obolienskyi after he took command of
the 2nd Khartiia Corps of Ukraine’s National Guard. The article described him
as a career military officer who had fought in Donbas since 2014. In 2015, he
helped establish the Rubizh Rapid Response Brigade and took command of its 1st
Battalion. He later worked in agribusiness — first at the MHP holding company
and then at Agrotrade.
Obolienskyi served in the Special Operations Forces during
the first days of the full-scale invasion. He later accepted an invitation from
agribusinessman Vsevolod Kozhemiako to join Khartiia, a volunteer unit
established in Kharkiv. In early 2023, Khartiia was reorganized into the 13th
Khartiia Brigade of Ukraine’s National Guard. Obolienskyi became its commander and
revamped the unit’s command and control system in line with NATO standards. In
2025, the General Staff decided to form a corps based on the Khartiia Brigade.
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