President Volodymyr Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies searched his apartment.
Zelensky announced the departure of Yermak, who was leading the country’s peace talks with the US, in a social media video late Friday afternoon.
The President praised Yermak but made clear that “there should be no reason to be distracted by anything other than the defense of Ukraine”.
Yermak has submitted his resignation, the President said. The search for a successor will begin on Saturday and the office of Ukraine’s president, which was led by Yermak, will be “reorganized” as part of the process.
He said, “I am grateful to Andrey that on the path to negotiations he has always represented Ukraine’s position exactly as it should be. This has always been a patriotic position. But I want there to be no rumors or speculations.”
Journalists filmed about 10 investigators entering Kiev’s government quarters early in the morning as part of their investigation into a nuclear energy bribery scandal allegedly run by an associate of the Ukrainian president who has fled the country.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said both it and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, SAPO, were “conducting investigative actions against the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine”.
A close ally and indispensable ally of Zelensky to this day, Yermak was a former intellectual property lawyer and film producer before becoming involved in politics. Initially a foreign policy advisor, he became Chief of Staff to the President in February 2020.
During the early days of the invasion, Yermak became particularly close to Zelensky, and was regularly consulted by the president on foreign policy, domestic matters, and appointments. He was considered the second most powerful person in the country. The Office of the President was the place where Zelensky’s political affairs were broadcast.
Earlier, in a brief statement, Yermak confirmed that searches were ongoing at his home. “Investigators have no objections,” he said in a social media statement. “They were given full access to the apartment, my lawyers are on site, negotiating with law enforcement officials. From my side, I have full cooperation.”
The corruption scandal first surfaced in November, but it slipped down the news agenda after several days of damaging revelations when Donald Trump unexpectedly released a pro-Russian 28-point peace plan.
But Friday’s developments have thrust the scandal back into the spotlight, just as Ukraine was carefully wooing the White House on a 19-point counterproposal Yermak spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva.
Earlier in November, Naboo investigators said they had uncovered a high-level criminal scheme at the heart of government. Insiders allegedly received bribes of 10–15% from commercial partners of Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power generator and Ukraine’s most important energy supplier.
Timur Mindych, a longtime friend and business partner of the Ukrainian president at the Kvartal 95 TV production company founded by Zelensky before entering politics, was accused of being the organizer. Mindich fled his apartment in Kyiv’s government district and fled abroad hours before investigators arrived to arrest him.
Zelensky himself has condemned the plan. However, in the days that followed, questions continued to be raised about how many senior people in the government knew what was happening, while how many people have been accused of being involved.
Zelensky fired two ministers this month and the allegations have sparked widespread public outrage at a time when most Ukrainians are facing daily power outages over energy infrastructure caused by Russian bombing.
Another high-profile suspect is former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, whom Nabu accused of allegedly receiving $1.2bn (£900m) from participants in an anti-corruption scheme. Chernyshov allegedly spent some of the illicit cash building four luxury mansions in a newly constructed plot of land along the river south of Kiev.
The anti-corruption investigation is based on more than 1,000 hours of conversations secretly recorded by Naboo, details of which have been released to the media. In one, a suspect said that building structures to protect power stations from Russian attacks was “unfortunate” because money could be stolen instead.
The European Commission said the investigation showed Ukraine’s anti-corruption institutions were working. A spokesperson said, “We understand that investigations are ongoing and we greatly respect these investigations, which show that anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine are doing their job.”
Nabu said he would provide further details later.
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