UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak has resigned after investigators raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.
“The Office of the President of Ukraine will be reorganised. The head of the office, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation,” Zelenskyy said in a video address, adding he would hold consultations with a possible replacement on Saturday.
Zelenskyy’s administration has been rocked by recent revelations of apparent corruption among government officials, which have included allegations some took money for themselves that was meant to be spent on shweselters for people displaced by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Investigators said they had raided Yermak’s home but did not reveal why.
He has been accused of involvement in a $100-million kickback scheme in the strategic energy sector, uncovered by investigators earlier this month.
The case triggered widespread public anger at a time when Russia is hammering Ukraine’s power grid, causing blackouts and threatening winter heating outages.
In the face of the scandal, Zelenskyy sought to rally the population today.
“If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything: ourselves, Ukraine, our future,” he said in the address.
Concerns about corruption in Ukraine have also been the main obstacle in its path to becoming a member state of the European Union.
In July this year, Zelenskyy came under pressure from the public over the issue. The government had made changes that curbed the influence of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies, effectively erasing their independence, which raised concerns in Brussels as well as at home.
The country saw its first large-scale protests since the war with Russia began in 2022.
Zelenskyy then approved a bill he said would strengthen the rule of law in Ukraine, by granting independence to anti-corruption bodies.
On top of the political pressure facing the president, Ukraine’s army is also struggling to keep Russia’s invading forces at bay on the front lines in the east of the country.
Russia has made steady advances throughout 2025, taking settlement after settlement and closing in on President Vladimir Putin’s goal of controlling the key Donbas region.
Added to these problems for the Zelenskyy government is the US push for Ukraine to reach a peace deal with Russia, drafts of which have included territorial concessions.
Just last week, Zelenskyy had named Yermak as Ukraine’s top negotiator in high-stakes talks to refine the US plan. That was a vote of confidence amid growing pressure from opposition figures to remove his divisive chief of staff.
With reporting from AFP
