Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Friday that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned following his implication in an ongoing scandal involving one of the nation’s largest energy companies.
The news of Yermak’s resignation comes shortly after the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau confirmed that it conducted searches of his home following implication in a long-running corruption case involving several high-profile officials and the state nuclear power monopoly, Energoatom.
“I want no one to have any questions about Ukraine today,” Zelensky said in his daily TV address. “Therefore, today we have the following internal decisions. First, there will be a reboot of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The head of the office, Andriy Yermak, has written a letter of resignation.”
The NABU has conducted a 15-month-long investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving Energoatom contractors, in which government officials extracted bribes from the company’s contracts, with the kickbacks ranging from 10% and 15% of their worth. NABU alleges that about $100 million was stolen in the scheme.
Zelensky’s ministers for energy and justice have already resigned over the scandal, and more than a dozen other officials have been implicated or detained.
Ukrainian corruption has been a significant obstacle to garnering U.S. support for the war against Russia, particularly for officials in the Trump administration.
The scandal developments come as the U.S. has ramped up pressure on Ukraine to agree to peace terms with Russia. The debacle could further threaten U.S. support for the country’s defense against Russian forces.
Yermak is Zelensky’s chief peace negotiator in the conflict, making his involvement in the scandal another complication in the negotiations.
Both Biden and Trump administration officials over the course of the Ukraine-Russia war have taken umbrage with Yermak’s abrasive negotiating style, more than a dozen sources told Politico in October, with some referring to him as a “bipartisan irritator.”
Ukraine’s energy sector has been the epicenter of the country’s corruption scandals, including Hunter Biden’s involvement with the oil and natural gas company Burisma.
Zelensky said in a statement earlier this month that he supports “every investigation carried out by law enforcement and anti-corruption officials” and said that there must be “maximum integrity in the energy sector.”
“Right now it is extremely difficult for everyone in Ukraine—enduring power outages, Russian strikes, and losses,” Zelensky said earlier this month. “It is absolutely unacceptable that, amid all this, there are also some schemes in the energy sector.”
Defense reporter Mike Brest contributed to this report.
