A top Zelensky aide resigns amid corruption investigation

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday evening that his powerful and polarizing chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, had resigned after anti-corruption officials raided his residence and offices earlier in the day.

In an evening speech, Zelensky said he was “grateful to Andriy because he always presents the Ukrainian position in the course of negotiations exactly as it should,” referring to Yermak’s key role in the peace talks.

The exit of Zelensky’s closest confidantes is likely to further weaken Zelensky at a pivotal moment for Zelensky. UkraineAs he seeks to reassure Western partners that he is rooting out entrenched corruption while pressing for military aid.

The president said that Ukraine now needs “unity,” adding that “there should be no reason to pay attention to anything other than defending Ukraine.” He pledged to “reboot” his presidential office.

Zelensky is also facing pressure to sign the peace deal pushed by Donald Trump. The Ukrainian president appointed Yermak just over a week ago to lead the delegation participating in peace talks with the United States and Russia.

According to a person familiar with the matter, Yermack was planning to travel to Miami this weekend to hold talks with the Trump team about the next steps in preparing the peace agreement. This meeting has now been cancelled.

Zelensky said on Friday that the peace talks delegation will now be headed by Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustam Omerov, along with Chief of the General Staff Andrei Hnatov, and representatives of the Foreign Ministry and intelligence agencies.

The President also confirmed that he accepted Yermak’s resignation from the position he has held since 2020, in which he became perhaps the most powerful non-elected political figure in the history of Ukraine.

Ukrainians and Western officials have likened Yermak to a vice president, even saying he acted as a head of state, formulating peace plans, directing diplomacy, selecting government officials, and making military decisions.

Western ambassador in July described Durr Yermack told the Financial Times bluntly: “It’s the president, the prime minister, the foreign minister… all the ministers combined.”

Calls for Yermak’s resignation increased after it emerged that he had orchestrated an attempt by the President’s Office in July to strip the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABO) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence.

Yermak placed the bodies under the control of the prosecutor, who was carefully chosen by Zelensky.

The move against independent agencies sparked the largest protests in Ukraine since the start of all-out war in 2022, forcing Zelensky to back down.

The two agencies said in a joint statement that about a dozen officials from Napo and Sapo conducted a search of Yermak’s residence and office before dawn on Friday in the high-security government district in Kiev.

The raid follows other searches related to a major corruption investigation called “Operation Midas” that implicated Zelensky’s government, ousted several senior government officials and led to the issuance of an arrest warrant for the president’s former business partner, who fled the country.