A top Ukrainian official at the heart of peace talks resigned on Friday after being thrust into the center of a massive corruption scandal, threatening to further weaken President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a crucial moment in negotiations to end Russia’s war.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff, quit hours after his home was searched early Friday by investigators with Ukraine’s National Anticorruption Bureau (NABU), which is leading the $100 million kickback probe involving the country’s energy sector.
Zelenskyy said in a later video statement that Yermak had handed in his resignation and he was looking for his replacement. “Russia really wants Ukraine to make mistakes,” he said. “There will be no mistakes on our part.”
Losing unity could mean losing the country and its future, he added.
The shocking development capped a dramatic week, which began with Kyiv under intense pressure from President Donald Trump to endorse a plan that initially offered Moscow its core hard-line demands.
Ukrainian negotiators, led by Yermak, secured changes, and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff will now head to Russia for talks next week. It’s unclear if Yermak will continue to participate in the talks or whether he will remain his country’s top negotiator.
Yermak, second from right, during peace talks with U.S. officials in Geneva last week.Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images
The Kremlin has sought to exploit the scandal and delighted Friday in what it said would be the “very negative” consequences of the latest development.
In a post on Facebook early Friday, NABU said that its investigators, along with those from the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, were “conducting investigative actions” into the president’s chief of staff.
Yermak, a key figure in talks with the United States, confirmed in a statement on Telegram shortly afterward that corruption investigators were “conducting procedural actions” at his home and that he was fully cooperating.
“There are no obstacles for the investigators,” he said. “They were given full access to the apartment, my lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers. From my side, there is full cooperation.” NBC News has reached out to Yermak for further comment.
It comes after weeks of mounting pressure on Zelenskyy to fire Yermak, who has been a steady right hand to the Ukrainian president throughout four years of war.
Speculation has long swirled that Yermak could be embroiled in the scandal, which has fueled public anger and been seized on by the Kremlin to try to undermine Ukraine’s leadership.
Friday’s searches make him the highest-ranking government official to be implicated by NABU so far.
Lawmakers and opposition figures called for Zelenskyy to fire Yermak effective immediately, without waiting for the outcome of the searches.“The most difficult thing after the searches into Yermak is to find a person who will be surprised by everything that becomes publicly known,” opposition lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko wrote on Telegram before Yermak’s resignation.
Two ministers were fired in connection with the probe earlier this month, and former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who has also featured prominently in negotiations with the U.S., has been mentioned by investigators but not faced any charges.
The scandal centers on an alleged scheme in which prosecutors said current and former officials, and businesspeople, received benefits and laundered money through the country’s state energy company, Energoatom, according to investigators.
Yermak has been a constant presence next to Zelenskyy through the ups and downs of the war, and has emerged as one of the few men that the Ukrainian leader appeared to really trust.
Critics have said for years that Yermak had accumulated too much power and wielded excessive influence over Zelenskyy.
As recently as Thursday, Yermak vowed that Zelenskyy would not agree to give up land in exchange for peace, a key sticking point in negotiations.
“Not a single sane person today would sign a document to give up territory,” Yermak said in an interview with The Atlantic.
Ukraine is facing immense pressure from the U.S. to accept a deal to end the war, but Kyiv and its allies in Europe have pushed back against Kremlin demands that Ukraine cede key territory it still holds in the east.
The aftermath of a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Wednesday.Jose Colon / Anadolu via Getty Images
While saying that he was ready for “serious” talks, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters Thursday that Russia had the upper hand across the front lines and fighting would only stop when Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they hold. “If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” he said.
Witkoff will be going to Moscow next week to discuss the plan with Putin, who has long sought to portray the Ukrainian government as corrupt and weak.
He has accused Zelenskyy and his officials of sitting on “golden pots” and not caring about ordinary Ukrainians, though Putin and his entourage have themselves been the subject of numerous corruption investigations in the past.
Putin also said Thursday that it was “pointless” to sign a deal with a Ukrainian government that he said had lost its legitimacy because it did not hold elections last year while martial law was in effect.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that Russia still wants to move toward peace with Ukraine despite its belief that Zelenskyy was not a legitimate leader.
Asked about searches at Yermak’s home, Peskov said it meant the corruption scandal was growing and “swaying the political system of this country in all directions.”
Peskov added: “What will be the consequences? Obviously very negative, but what exactly, it’s hard to predict. It’s a very difficult situation for Ukraine.”
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