Zelenskyy’s top aide quits after anti-corruption searches of his home | Ukraine

Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful private secretary and closest ally, resigned after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies conducted searches of his home earlier today.

The sudden departure of the deputy who led the latest round of sensitive peace talks with the United States was announced by Ukraine’s president in a video posted on social media on Friday afternoon.

Zelenskyy praised Yermak but made clear that “there should be no reason for distraction other than the defense of Ukraine” at a time when Kiev is dependent on maintaining US support in the face of Russia’s territorial claims.

The president said Yermak had submitted his resignation. The search for a successor will begin on Saturday, and the powerful office of Ukraine’s president, which Yermak presides over, will be “reorganized” as part of the process.

“I am grateful to Andriy for always representing Ukraine’s position in the negotiation process as it should be. This has always been a patriotic position. But I want there to be no rumors or speculation,” Zelenskyy said.

Journalists had filmed about 10 inspectors entering Kiev’s government building early in the morning to expand the investigation into the nuclear energy kickback scandal, allegedly carried out by an associate of the Ukrainian president who fled the country.

The national anti-corruption bureau Nabu and the prosecutor’s office specializing in anti-corruption said Sapo “carried out investigative activities at the head of the office of the president of Ukraine.”

Yermak, who to this day seems like an indispensable aide, is a former intellectual property lawyer and film producer who knew Zelenskyy as an actor and comedian before helping him get elected president. Yermak became foreign policy advisor and then private secretary to the president in February 2020.

He quickly rose to a central position as Zelenskyy’s caretaker in charge of the president’s office. He was routinely consulted on foreign policy, domestic affairs, and appointments. The two, who were never far from Zelenskyy’s side, were particularly close in the early days of the occupation, when Kiev was under threat.

Yermak had previously confirmed in his brief statement that searches at his home were continuing. “Researchers have no obstacles,” he added in his social media statement. “They were given full access to the department, my attorneys are on site, interacting with law enforcement. I have full cooperation from my end.”

The energy corruption scandal first emerged in early November, but after days of damaging revelations, it fell out of the news spotlight when Donald Trump unexpectedly announced a pro-Russian 28-point peace plan in which the Kremlin demanded control of the entire Donbas region ahead of any ceasefire.

However, Friday’s developments caused the scandal to come to the fore again, just as Ukraine was carefully persuading the White House to submit a 19-point counter-offer and Yermak was holding talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Geneva.

In early November, investigators in Nabu said they had uncovered a high-level criminal scheme at the heart of the government. Insiders allegedly received 10 percent to 15 percent kickbacks from trading partners of Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear energy producer and Ukraine’s most important energy supplier.

Timur MindiçZelenskyy, a former friend and business partner of the Ukrainian president at the Kvartal 95 TV production company, which Zelenskyy founded before entering politics, was accused of being an organizer. Mindich He fled abroad, abandoned his apartment in Kiev’s government district, hours before investigators arrived to arrest him.

Zelenskyy himself condemned this plan. But in the days that followed, questions arose about how much the most senior figures in the government knew about what was happening, given that many other people within or close to the administration were accused of involvement.

Zelenskyy fired two ministers this month, and the allegations sparked widespread public outrage at a time when most Ukrainians are forced to endure hours of daily power outages due to Russia’s bombing of energy infrastructure.

Another high-profile suspect is former deputy prime minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, who was indicted by Nabu for allegedly receiving $1.2bn (£900m) from participants in an anti-corruption scheme. Chernyshov allegedly spent some of the illegal money to build four luxury mansions on a newly constructed riverside plot south of Kiev.

The anti-corruption investigation is based on more than 1,000 hours of conversations secretly recorded by Nabu, the details of which were released to the media. In one of them, a suspect said it was “a shame” to build structures to protect power plants from Russian attacks because money could be stolen.

The European Commission said investigations showed that Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies were working. “We understand that investigations are ongoing and we have great respect for these investigations, which show that anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine are doing their job,” a spokesman said.