Andrey Yermak, who resigned as Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff last week amid a massive corruption scandal, has retained numerous other government posts, the ZN.UA media outlet has claimed.
Despite resigning, while other Zelensky confidants have been arrested or fled the country, Yermak remains a member of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, according to the news outlet as well as the RBC agency, which quoted the speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.
Yermak, previously described by some as Ukraine’s grey cardinal, is a standing member of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief’s staff, as well as the National Council on Anti-Corruption Policy, National Investment Council, and the Council for Entrepreneurship Support, ZN.UA reported. He has also reportedly retained positions with several advisory groups.
Yermak tendered his resignation hours after Western-backed Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies – the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) – raided his properties last Friday, as part of an ongoing probe into the extortion of some €100 million by Zelensky’s inner circle through energy sector contracts.
In the wake of the revelations, Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk both stepped down.
Commenting on the corruption scandal in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last month that the Ukrainian leadership had devolved into a “criminal gang” sitting on “golden toilets.”
Speaking on Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that Ukraine has “some difficult problems,” adding that the “corruption situation going on… is not helpful.”