investigators

Nov. 28 (UPI) — Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s chief of staff, resigned Friday after a raid on his home in a sweeping corruption scandal.

Yermak had led Ukraine‘s negotiating team in peace talks with the President Donald Trump administration. He was the most powerful political figure in Ukraine behind Zelensky.

“This is the perfect storm. There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” a Ukrainian official told Axios.

He was scheduled to travel to Miami on Saturday for talks with Trump’s team, but that meeting has been canceled.

On Friday, Hungarian President Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in defiance of the rest of the European Union members. Orban said his visit was an attempt to secure Russian energy supplies for the winter for Hungary, Slovakia and Serbia.

Zelensky announced Yermak’s resignation and said he will appoint a new chief of staff soon.

No charges have been filed as of this writing.

“Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes. There will be no mistakes on our side,” Zelensky said in a video on X. “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.”

Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-corruption Bureau and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office did the searches Thursday morning targeting Yermak, the Kyiv Post reported.

In a Telegram post, Yermak confirmed the searches.

“Today, NABU and SAPO are indeed conducting procedural actions at my home. There are no obstacles for the investigators,” he said.

Yermak said investigators were given full access to his apartment.

“My lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers. From my side, I am providing full assistance,” he added.

While officials have not confirmed why the searches were conducted, reporter Christopher Miller of the Financial Times said that his sources confirmed it was part of Operation Midas, an investigation into large-scale bribery in the energy sector in Ukraine.

NABU also confirmed the searches.

“NABU and SAPO are conducting investigative actions (searches) at the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The investigative actions are authorized and are being carried out within the framework of the investigation. Details to follow,” the agency said on Telegram.

Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko and Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk resigned Nov. 12 after investigators uncovered that officials at the state nuclear energy company Energoatom had manipulated contracts to generate bribes and laundered about $100 million.

On Nov. 13, Zelensky sanctioned his former business partner Timur Mindich over his role in the scandal.

Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak confirms search, saying he has offered ‘full cooperation’.

Anticorruption authorities in Ukraine have searched the home of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, as a major corruption investigation continues to roil the country and cause consternation among allies.

Andriy Yermak, who leads Kyiv’s negotiating team concurrently trying to hash out the terms of a United States-proposed plan to end the four-year war with Russia, confirmed his apartment was being searched on Friday and said he was fully cooperating.

“There are no obstacles for the investigators. They have been given full access to the apartment, and my lawyers are present on-site, cooperating with the law enforcement officers. From my side, there is full cooperation,” he said on social media.

In a joint statement, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said the searches were “authorised” and linked to an unspecified investigation.

Earlier this month, the two anticorruption agencies unveiled a sweeping investigation into an alleged $100m kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company that ensnared former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Zelenskyy.

Friday’s searches come as the Ukrainian president faces growing pressure from the administration of United States President Donald Trump to agree to Washington’s proposal to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukraine and its European allies had raised concerns that the Trump-backed plan comprised some elements that Russia has been actively pushing for, including that Ukraine cede additional territory and curtail the size of its military.

But a revised proposal has been put forward, and Kyiv has said it is open to negotiations.

The searches are also likely to worsen tensions between Zelenskyy and his political opponents amid the peace negotiations.

In a statement on Thursday, the European Solidarity opposition party criticised Yermak’s role as a negotiator and called on Zelenskyy for “an honest dialogue” with other parties.

‘Black Friday’

Viktor Shlinchak, a political analyst at the Kyiv-based Institute for World Politics, described the searches as a “Black Friday” for Yermak and suggested Zelenskyy may be forced to dismiss him.

“It looks like we may soon have a different head of the negotiating team,” he wrote on Facebook.

Yermak, 54, is Zelenskyy’s most important ally, but a divisive figure in Kyiv, where his opponents say he has accumulated power, gatekeeps access to the president and ruthlessly sidelines critical voices.

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

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

The corruption investigation revolves around an alleged scheme involving Energoatom, the state-run nuclear power company that supplies more than half of the country’s electricity.

“That [case] has been swirling around Ukraine for several weeks now, rocking the government,” Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reported from Kyiv on Friday. “The allegation is that some $100m … has gone through a kind of laundromat,” he explained.

Anticorruption investigators have said they suspect that Tymur Mindich, a one-time business partner of Zelenskyy, was the plot’s mastermind.

Mindich has fled the country, with any criminal proceedings against him likely to be carried out in absentia. Two top ministers have also resigned over the scandal.

Challands also noted that the inquiry comes after Zelenskyy’s government had tried in July to take away the Ukrainian anticorruption agencies’ independence and place them under the control of his prosecutor-general.

But the Ukrainian leader backtracked after mass public protests.

Concerns have been raised about a ‘humanitarian organisation’ that flew people from Gaza to South Africa. Inquiries into Al-Majd Europe revealed a website based in Iceland, crypto payments and AI images showing ‘executives.’ The company didn’t respond when asked to comment.