Amidst Mass Firings, Zelensky Fires First Aide, A Jewish Comedian Who’d Been by His Side Since the Beginning

Zelensky has now gotten rid of almost his entire original team, which was, perhaps bizarrely, made up largely of other (mostly Jewish) comedians who had never worked in the government before. It was sort of assumed that he was running his office of president as a kind of TV show, with other people making government decisions, which is the only obvious explanation as to why he would hire fellow comedians.

It’s not clear what it means that he is firing these people now. The only thing I can think of is that these people are all telling him the war is over, and he’s refusing to accept that. Because he is literally the Jewish comedy version of Winston Churchill.

New York Post:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to clean house Saturday even as Russia bombarded the nation, carrying out 75 airstrikes in just 24 hours.

Zelensky ousted two key staffers — his top aide, Serhiy Shefir, along with the nation’s Commissioner for Soldiers’ Rights, Alyona Verbytska, along with four other government workers.

No reasons were offered for their expulsions, The Kyiv Independent reported.

The latest personnel changes come just a day after Zelensky dismissed Andrii Smirnov and Oleksii Dniprov as the deputy heads of his office and are the latest in a series of changes he’s made at the top of the military and government in recent months.

“Shefir” is “Schafer,” for people who didn’t get that; another comedian, a Joe Rogan associate and Romanian Jew, spells it “Shaffir,” which is pronounced the same way as “Shefir.” (Also, just a reminder: “Zelensky” is “Greenblatt.”) He was not so much a political figure, at all, so firing him has to be personal. It’s also possible that Shefir is trying to do the “old Jew trick” and flee the nation with cash before the rug gets pulled.

Verbytska, a woman, was just two weeks ago sent to give a speech at Yale claiming Russia is committing a genocide. It’s an abrupt firing.

Firing everyone is usually a sign things are going less than well.