Ukraine’s second-most powerful official, presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned Friday after anti-corruption investigators raided his home.
Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote a letter of resignation after the search, Fox News reported.
“Today, NABU [National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine] and SAPO [Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office] are indeed conducting procedural actions at my home. The investigators have no obstacles. They were given full access to the apartment, my lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers,” Yermak said on social media.
“From my side, I have full cooperation.”
The raid is linked to a $100 million embezzlement and kickback scandal at state nuclear operator Energoatom, the largest corruption case to strike President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inner circle.
While Yermak has not been formally charged, his departure marks the highest-level fallout yet from the 15-month NABU probe known as “Operation Midas.”
Businessman Tymur Mindich — who co-owned a production company with Zelenskyy — has been charged in absentia as the alleged ringleader of the scheme.
The Financial Times reported that bags of cash and a toilet plated in gold were found during a raid of his apartment.
While Yermak’s resignation will doubtfully provide such colorful details, it will have a more palpable impact on Zelenskyy’s ability to govern, given that he was the chief Ukrainian negotiator in a U.S.-proposed peace parley between Kyiv and Moscow.
The resignation came a day before he was set to travel to Miami to confer with Trump administration officials about the proposal.
“This is the perfect storm. There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” an unnamed Ukrainian official told Axios.
Opposition politicians had already been calling on Yermak to resign before the search, calls that the president had rejected. American officials had warned Zelenskyy that the scandal could jeopardize their negotiating position with Russia, however.
For his part, Zelenskyy tried to sound a note of appreciation as his former No. 2 left under shadow of an NABU search.
“I am grateful to Andriy for always presenting the Ukrainian position in the negotiation track exactly as it should be. It has always been a patriotic position,” Zelenskyy said in remarks after Yermak’s stepping down.
“But I want there to be no rumors and speculation. As for the new head of the office, tomorrow I will hold consultations with those who can head this institution.”
“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes. There will be no mistakes on our side,” Zelenskyy added.
“We do not have the right to ease the pressure. We do not have the right to retreat or to quarrel among ourselves. If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything.”
However, the Yermak resignation piles more doubt upon the viability of Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s head of state, with some observers calling him a “lame duck” due to the Energoatom scandal.
The U.S. peace deal specifically calls for presidential elections within 100 days in Ukraine after the deal is signed. Zelenskyy, who was initially elected in 2019 on an anti-corruption platform, called off elections scheduled for 2024 due to the war. He would have an uphill battle if he were to seek the office again, and has indicated he won’t try.
“If we finish [the] war with [the] Russians, I’m ready not to go for the second term because it’s not my goal — elections,” he said in a September interview.
“I wanted very much in a very difficult period of time to be with my country, help my country. My goal is to finish the war.”
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