Former head of Ukraine’s presidential office Andriy Yermak, who resigned in late November after searches at his home amid a corruption scandal at state-owned Energoatom, speaks with President Volodymyr Zelensky every evening at the president’s residence in the Koncha-Zaspa district in southern Kyiv, reports the Ukrainian outlet Zerkalo Nedeli, citing its sources.
“Yermak hasn’t gone anywhere. He just no longer sits in the office or runs things 24/7. But he’s constantly on the phone, and in the evenings he’s at the president’s home behind the fence in Koncha-Zaspa. That’s all. A rupture between Zelensky and Yermak is possible only in one form - a race for a plea deal and testimony against each other. Either they’re together, or it’s that,” wrote Inna Vedernikova, the outlet’s domestic politics editor, in a column.
She added that the Ukrainian President and his former chief of staff remain bound by “what they know about each other,” “what they’ve lived through together over these years,” “huge sums of shared money,” and “above all — a deep, shared fear of the future.”
After Yermak’s resignation, Zelensky named candidates to lead his office. The list included Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal, Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, deputy chief of staff Pavlo Palisa and Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya.
Now, Vedernikova writes, some of those names have dropped out (for example, Shmyhal and Palisa), while Zelensky is seeking to preserve the system of power Yermak built for him. “That’s why Zelensky’s choice will most likely be tied to further blurring the real role of the head of the President’s Office,” the article said.
According to the journalist’s sources, Zelensky is ready to manage his office directly, reducing it to technical functions and spreading the analytical work across existing structures, including the National Security and Defense Council’s apparatus.
Vedernikova argues Zelensky “could have but chose not to” remove figures aligned with Yermak and Tymur Mindich - a longtime associate of Zelensky and co-owner of the Kvartal 95 studio, who left Ukraine hours before searches at his home in the Energoatom case.
“The pause the president has taken also dictates caution from the old-new circle. Even though visits to Zelensky by Servant of the People faction leader Davyd Arakhamia, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, GUR chief Kyrylo Budanov and others have become noticeably more frequent, no one is rushing to write Yermak off,” the article said.
Vedernikova notes that several heads of regional state administrations connected to Yermak remain in place. Other “appointees” of the former chief of staff still in their posts include Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba and financial monitoring chief Filip Pronin.
