Zelensky Removes Top Aide After Anti-Graft Raids

Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday removed his powerful chief of staff and top negotiator, Andriy Yermak, after detectives raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

Yermak’s removal deals a serious blow to Zelensky, who is facing a mounting Russian offensive in the east just as the United States, a crucial ally, tabled a surprise plan to end the war that heavily favoured Moscow.

Just last week, Zelensky had named Yermak, 54, as Ukraine’s top negotiator in high-stakes talks to refine the US plan. That was a vote of confidence amid growing pressure from opposition figures to remove his divisive chief of staff.

Then on Friday Zelensky announced in a video address: “The Office of the President of Ukraine will be reorganised. The head of the office, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation.”

Minutes later, Zelensky signed a decree “to dismiss” Yermak.

On Friday morning, investigators from the National Anti-Corruption Agency (NABU) said it and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had raided Yermak’s apartment as part of an investigation.

They did not say what it was about, and Yermak said he was fully cooperating.

He has been accused of involvement in a $100-million kickback scheme in the strategic energy sector, uncovered by investigators earlier this month.

The case triggered widespread public anger at a time when Russia is hammering Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts and threatening winter heating outages.

In the face of the scandal, Zelensky sought to rally the population on Friday.

“If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything: ourselves, Ukraine, our future,” he said in the address.

Yermak’s influence

Zelensky said he would hold consultations on Saturday over a replacement.

In the meantime, talks with the United States will be led by military, diplomats and intelligence services.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is due in Kyiv in the coming days to discuss the latest plan to end the war, while President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Moscow next week for talks with Vladimir Putin.

Yermak was Zelensky’s most important ally, but a divisive figure in Kyiv, where his opponents say he has accumulated power, gate-keeps access to the president and ruthlessly sidelines critical voices.

A former film producer and copyright lawyer, he came into politics with Zelensky in 2019, previously working with him during the now-president’s time as a popular comedian.

Yermak was widely considered the second-most influential man in the country and even sometimes nicknamed “vice-president”.

“Yermak doesn’t allow anyone to get to Zelensky except loyal people,” a former senior official who worked with Zelensky and Yermak told AFP, describing him as “super paranoid”.

“He definitely tries to influence almost every decision,” they added.

A senior source in Zelensky’s party said Yermak’s influence over the president was akin to “hypnosis”.

Speaking after the raid on Yermak, the European Union backed the work of Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies.

“We have a lot of respect for those investigations which show that the anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine are doing their work,” said European Commission spokeswoman Paula Pinho.

Zelensky had in the summer tried to strip the independence of NABU and SPO, triggering rare wartime protests and forcing him to walk back the decision after criticism from the EU.

Pressure on Zelensky

Yermak had been a stalwart by Zelensky’s side throughout the war.

The two men are seen together on official photos of almost all presidential events. According to media reports, their beds stand side by side in the presidential office’s underground bunker, and in their free time, they play table tennis, watch movies or work out.

But he is widely unpopular in society — distrusted by two-thirds of the population according to a March 2025 poll by the Razumkov Centre, an NGO.

Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told AFP before Yermak’s removal that he needed to go to shore up Kyiv’s position in talks with the United States.

Alluding to the vulnerability of the moment, Zelensky also stressed that he could not afford to make political missteps at this moment.

“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes,” he said.

“There will be no mistakes on our part.”