Grigoriy Shcherbina

Grigoriy Stepanovich Shcherbina (Russian: Григорий Степанович Щербина, Ukrainian: Григорій Степанович Щербина, November 29, 1868 – April 10, 1903) was a Russian diplomat of Ukrainian origin, the Russian Consul seated in Mitrovica, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire from late 1902 until his death in April 1903 from shot wounds. The Russian Empire decided to open a consulate in Mitrovica following the Kolašin affair (1901). At the beginning of 1903, Muslim Albanian chieftains met in Yakova after the Ottoman reform plans, and decided to murder leading Serbs in the Sanjak of İpek and compel other Serbs to flee to Serbia or be Turkicized. The plan was to rout Ottoman authorities in Peć, kill the notable Serbs, then move to Mitrovica and confront the Russian consulate. While supervising Ottoman defending troops, on 31 March, Scherbina was shot by an Ottoman Albanian corporal by the name of Halit Ibrahimi Popofci under orders of Isa Bolenti. Grigoriy Schterbina died ten days later.

Albanian sources state that the soldier was Halit Ibrahim Popofci, from Zhegër near Gjilan, and that he shot Scherbina due to his Anti-albanian policies.