NEW YORK: The resignation of Vladimir Zelensky’s Chief of Staff, Andrey Yermak, may be an attempt to prevent a vote of no confidence in th...
NEW YORK: The resignation of Vladimir Zelensky’s Chief of Staff, Andrey Yermak, may be an attempt to prevent a vote of no confidence in the Ukrainian government in the Verkhovna Rada, The New York Times wrote.
Yermak may have "agreed to sacrifice himself" in a bid to stave off a no-confidence vote in the government, according to the publication. However, it is unclear whether this will be enough to resolve the crisis. If the vote of no confidence passes, Zelensky's cabinet will be forced to resign. No influential leader has called for Zelensky's resignation as elections are not held in the country during martial law, the paper noted.
On November 10, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), both independent from Zelensky’s office, announced an investigation into a major corruption scheme in the energy sector, dubbed Operation Midas. Searches were conducted at the Energoatom energy company and the residences of entrepreneur Timur Mindich and the now suspended Justice Minister German Galushchenko, who served as the country’s energy minister at the time of the events that are being looked into. The investigation found that participants in the scheme had laundered around $100 mln. NABU also started to release recordings of conversations from Mindich’s apartment, which revealed discussions of corrupt practices. On November 17, reports indicated that Andrey Yermak might appear in the Mindich case files under the pseudonym Ali Baba.
The corruption scandal triggered a profound crisis in the Ukrainian government: the parliament was suspended, and several MPs, including those from the ruling pro-presidential Servant of the People party, demanded the resignation of Zelensky’s Chief of Staff. On November 28, it was reported that anti-corruption officials were conducting searches of Yermak's apartment and office. He himself confirmed that investigative actions were underway. Zelensky later announced that Yermak had submitted a resignation letter.
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