After Andriy Yermak was dismissed from the post of head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, his assistants and advisers were also let go, the Ukrinform news agency reported on Monday. Serhii Leshchenko, Mykhailo Podoliak and Oleksandr Bevz were transferred to other positions within the Presidential Office, sources in the president’s chancellery told the agency.
Even Bevz Removed
“That’s how it works – when the head of the Presidential Office is dismissed, his assistants and advisers, his entire cabinet, are dismissed as well,” an Ukrinform source said. The Presidential Office explained that “Leshchenko, Podoliak and Bevz, who is involved in the negotiation process (peace talks with the United States and European countries), were transferred to other positions.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced on November 28 that his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, had resigned. Yermak is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) in connection with a corruption probe codenamed “Midas.” The scandal, revealed by NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), broke in early November, and in the case files Yermak appears under the alias Ali Baba.
The portal Ukrainska Pravda reported that Yermak had also been personally involved in preparing a draft law on NABU that appeared in July and triggered mass protests over attempts to limit the institution’s powers. The draft was also criticized abroad, including by the European Union and the United States. Under the proposal promoted by Yermak, the anti-corruption service would have lost most of its operational capabilities.
The Enerhoatom Scandal
On November 10, NABU and SAP revealed information about participants in a large-scale corruption scheme in the energy sector. They were collecting bribes from contractors of Enerhoatom, the state operator of nuclear power plants, amounting to 10 to 15 percent of contract values. The illegal funds were allegedly laundered through a so-called back office in central Kyiv, through which – as established – about 100 million dollars passed.
On December 8, Zelensky said he was considering two candidates for the post of head of the Presidential Office – Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal or First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. As he noted, however, the issue of replacing them in their current posts remains unresolved.