Ukraine's Zelenskyy sacks trusted aide Yermak after anti-corruption raid on his home

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday removed his powerful chief of staff and top negotiator, Andriy Yermak, after detectives raided his house as part of a sweeping corruption probe.

Yermak's removal deals a serious blow to Zelenskyy, who is facing a mounting Russian offensive in the east just as the United States, a crucial ally, tabled a surprise plan to end the war that heavily favoured Moscow.

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 on Friday.

"If we lose our unity, we risk losing everything: ourselves, Ukraine, our future," he said in the address.

The Ukrainian president said he would hold consultations on Saturday over a replacement.

Yermak’s influence

Yermak was Zelenskyy's most important ally, but a divisive figure in Kiev, where his opponents say he has accumulated power and ruthlessly sidelines critical voices.

He was widely considered the second-most influential man in the country and even sometimes nicknamed "vice-president".

The two men are seen together on official photos of almost all presidential events. According to media reports, their beds stand side by side in the presidential office's underground bunker, and in their free time, they play table tennis, watch movies or work out.

"Yermak doesn't allow anyone to get to Zelenskyy except loyal people," a former senior official who worked with Zelenskyy and Yermak told AFP, describing him as "super paranoid".

"He definitely tries to influence almost every decision," they added. A senior source in Zelenskyy's party said Yermak's influence over the president was akin to "hypnosis".

However, he is widely unpopular in society — distrusted by two-thirds of the population according to a March 2025 poll by the Razumkov Centre, an NGO.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is due in Kiev in the coming days to discuss the latest plan to end the war, while President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff is travelling to Moscow next week for talks with Vladimir Putin.

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Source: TRT