Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is under heavy domestic and international pressure to fire his right-hand man, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, after a massive corruption scandal.
Zelensky’s government is embroiled in one of its worst domestic crises since the Russian invasion in February 2022, following accusations by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, that Timur Mindich, a close ally of Zelensky, is involved in large-scale corruption. Mindich and his associates were accused of siphoning $100 million in revenue from Energoatom, the state nuclear energy company. The affair, now dubbed “Mindichgate,” is threatening a man so powerful that analysts have drawn historical parallels with Cardinal Richelieu, a figure from the French King Louis XIII’s era.
Despite never being elected, Yermak has masterfully handled the intrigue in Kyiv to remain Zelensky’s right-hand man. His secretive nature and unchecked power have made him enemies in all parts of the Ukrainian political scene, as well as numerous others in Brussels and Washington.
Over a dozen sources speaking with Politico last month said that the Trump and Biden administrations had quickly grown annoyed with Yermak due to his abrasive and demanding style. One source referred to him as a “bipartisan irritator.”
The current wave of pressure to oust Yermak, however, is unprecedented. High-level Ukrainian sources speaking with Politico and Ukrainska Pravda both hold that there’s a high likelihood he could be removed as early as this week, with high-level meetings on Thursday set to be decisive.
Parliamentary sources told Ukrainska Pravda that Zelensky held meetings with the leaders of the ruling coalition over the past week, all of whom advised him to fire Yermak.
“The coalition is simply being torn apart. Many enemies have smelled blood when they have money. Our deputies are already being offered ‘cooperation.’ This could actually be the end of everything if there are no tough decisions from the president,” a member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People Party told the outlet.
“It’s easier to count the people in our Rada who didn’t ask for his dismissal,” another noted. “It’s clear that there’s no direct blackmail, but if this doesn’t happen, the faction will collapse on its own.”
Peter Korotaev, a Ukrainian writer who has extensively documented Yermak’s rise and the political intrigue surrounding him on his Events in Ukraine Substack, told the Washington Examiner that an ousting of the “Green Cardinal” is possible, though with a catch.
“If Yermak goes, I think he will still remain quite influential. The replacement will be some sort of irrelevant individual that Yermak himself reared. Yermak could well be just as influential as before, but behind the scenes, like Mindich was, without ever having a government post,” Korotaev said.
“And in any case, the attempt to blame everything on Zelensky’s advisers obviously excuses the president. He chose and trusts Yermak, Mindich to surround him of his own will,” he added.
An element adding to Yermak’s complications was his central role in Zelensky’s aborted push to abolish NABU and SAPO in July, the same organs that uncovered Mindichgate last week.
“He’s the one who decided to pick a fight with NABU,” a senior Ukrainian adviser told Politico. “Had he not done that, basically, they think this scandal would have just been, you know, swept under the rug, or it would have come out later in a year or so.”
“His enemies see this as an opportunity to try to get rid of him,” they added.
Mindich fled the country before officials could arrest him and is believed to be hiding out in Austria or Israel.
Although it is not enshrined in the Ukrainian Constitution, the position of head of the Office of the President, which provides Yermak with unchecked power, has ample historical precedent. Dmitry Tabachnik and Viktor Medvechuk played this role for former President Leonid Kuchma; Viktor Baloga for former President Viktor Yushchenko; Sergei Levochkin for former President Viktor Yanukovych; and Boris Lozhkin for former President Petro Poroshenko. All likewise formed reputations as schemers, many of them broadly unpopular.
UKRAINE’S CORRUPTION SCANDAL DEEPENS
Yermak has emerged as the most powerful of them, partially due to the Russian invasion. He enjoys the unparalleled trust of Zelensky, having become friends shortly after meeting in 2011 when Yermak was a media copyright lawyer and Zelensky a comedian, actor, and producer. Their personal closeness helped Yermak rise from presidential adviser in 2019 to head of the Office of the President in February 2020. His undefined role helped him consolidate power and appoint loyalists in key positions, as well as leading prewar negotiations with Moscow.
His habit of making enemies across the Ukrainian political scene has birthed a plethora of conspiracy theories around him. Different conspiracy theories claim that he is a Kremlin agent, British agent, oligarchic agent, or Ukrainian deep-state agent.
