The ever-widening scandal involving several close aides and cronies of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ensnared his friend and collaborator Andriy Yermak, whose house was searched as part of the investigation into a $100 million bribery and kickback scheme involving the state nuclear company, Energoatom.
Yermak served as Zelensky’s chief of staff and alter ego. He helped the president rise from being the star of a hit TV comedy show to the highest elected office in Ukraine. He was known as Zelensky’s “enforcer,” muscling opposition lawmakers and others in government to do the bidding of his boss.
He was also chief negotiator for peace talks to end the largest war in Europe in generations. The Ukrainian government insists the talks with Europe, the U.S., and Russia will continue with no change.
But this is a blow that may fatally weaken Zelensky, as his enemies inside Ukraine are circling, ready to take advantage of the absence of Yermak. The resignation may even make Zelensky’s position in government untenable.
“This is the perfect storm. There is a lot of uncertainty right now,” a Ukrainian official told Axios.
Yermak was reportedly ready to travel to Miami to meet with Donald Trump and American officials to hash out the details of a ceasefire agreement. His resignation throws the peace talks into the air.
Yermak has not been accused of anything, but several of his close friends and allies have been indicted in the scandal. The scheme involved greasing the bureaucratic skids for cronies to avoid the byzantine contract process, one of the primary conduits of corruption in Ukraine.
Mr. Yermak, a former movie producer who has been close to Mr. Zelensky for years, had been a sharp-elbowed and imperious political operative, to the point that opposition politicians and journalists accused him of repression and abuse. Many cheered his exit.
In diplomacy to end the war, too, Mr. Yermak had seized a central role. He sidelined a former foreign minister who had good working relations with American and European governments. In the latest round of talks with the Trump administration, Mr. Zelensky had appointed Mr. Yermak to lead Ukraine’s delegation, despite the looming corruption investigation.
Mr. Yermak’s insistence on remaining, nearly always, physically close to the president had drawn notice both in Ukraine and in foreign capitals. A tall, strapping man, he struck an almost cartoonish contrast to the diminutive Mr. Zelensky in photographs when both appeared wearing matching green military-style clothing. In both the Trump and Biden administration, Mr. Yermak had rubbed officials the wrong way, diplomats say.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the foreign policy committee in Ukraine’s Parliament. told the Times, “Negotiations are teamwork. If one person drops out, the mechanism doesn’t change.”
Zelensky announced Yermak’s resignation in a national address, saying he would reshuffle the office of the president and appoint a new chief of staff in the coming days.
Breaking news: Andriy Yermak has resigned from his longtime post of head of the Ukrainian presidential office, President Zelenskyy says in a statement. pic.twitter.com/seGDBbWJbh
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) November 28, 2025
His firing eases worries in Ukraine that Russia or the United States will use the corruption scandal as leverage to push Ukrainian officials make painful concessions in talks. An opposition political party, European Solidarity, had issued a statement on Thursday demanding Mr. Yermak’s removal from the negotiating team, for this reason.
Anticorruption activists say Mr. Yermak and another negotiator implicated in the corruption case, Rustem Umerov, the head of the National Security and Defense Council, faced conflicts of interest in negotiations over provisions in the peace plan such as a proposed amnesty for wartime crimes. Such a condition could cover the investigations targeting them.
With so many close associates and friends implicated in the scandal, Zelesnky may be forced out even if he’s innocent. The scandal has certainly weakened his credibility and the office of the president.
The meetings this weekend with U.S. officials, including Trump, will tell us a lot about Zelensky’s standing.
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