Andrii Yermak, Photo: Ruslan Kaniuka / Zuma Press / Profimedia
Andrii Iermak has resigned from the position of head of the Ukrainian presidential cabinet, according to the announcement made by Volodymyr Zelensky, on Friday, amid the corruption scandal targeting the president's allies, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Yermak's resignation comes against the background of the searches made today by the National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU) in his home, in the biggest corruption case of the current president's mandate.
This month, Ukraine's two anti-corruption bodies, NABU and SAPO, unveiled a wide-ranging investigation into an alleged $100 million bribery scheme at the state-run atomic energy company Energoatom involving former senior officials and Zelenskiy's former business partner Timur Mindich, who prosecutors say was the ringleader.
On November 13, Gherman Galushchenko, former Minister of Energy, was dismissed from the Ministry of Justice. His successor at the Ministry of Energy, Svitala Grinciuk, was also dismissed. The two were not charged in the case.
Mindich fled Ukraine before being indicted. In the meantime he was pursued.
The publication Ukrainska Pravda reported, based on sources, that Yermak is also involved in the corruption scandal and that investigators refer to him with the pseudonym “Ali Baba”.
Ukraine's chief anti-corruption prosecutor Oleksandr Klymenko said in November that, according to investigators, “Ali Baba organizes meetings and assigns tasks to law enforcement agencies to ensure that they persecute NABU detectives and anti-corruption prosecutors.”
One of the luxury homes near Kyiv, financed by the Energoatom corruption scheme, was intended for Yermak, a law enforcement source told the Kyiv Independent.
Despite the public controversy, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy refused to fire Yermak. Instead, he assigned him to lead a delegation to the talks held in Switzerland with the US, in the context of the draft peace plan presented by Donald Trump for the war unleashed by Russia.
Yermak had been appointed in 2020 and had amassed unprecedented influence within the Ukrainian government, according to the Kyiv Independent. Despite long-standing criticism, Zelenskiy said he trusted Yermak and rejected accusations that the latter wielded excessive power.
“Yermak is a strong manager. I respect him for his results. He does what I tell him to do and fulfills these tasks,” the Ukrainian leader said in an interview with Bloomberg in 2024.
“He came with me, he will leave with me. And he will not stay in any position,” the president said in 2021.
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