![\"Ukrainian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0022a0c3-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAndriy Yermak has been a close friend of Volodymyr Zelensky for many years<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally of the president who has headed Ukraine’s negotiation team at fraught US-backed peace talks, has resigned, hours after anti-corruption agents searched his home.<\/p>\n
Mr Zelensky said Mr Yermak had resigned and that he would consider his replacement tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Just last week, Mr Zelensky had named Yermak, 54, as Ukraine’s top negotiator in high-stakes talks to refine the US plan.<\/p>\n
That was a vote of confidence amid growing pressure from opposition figures to remove his divisive chief of staff.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Zelensky announced in a video address today: “The Office of the President of Ukraine will be reorganised. The head of the office, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation.”<\/p>\n
Minutes later, Mr Zelensky signed a decree “to dismiss” Mr Yermak.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies searched Mr Yermak’s home this morning. Mr Yermak said he was fully cooperating with the investigators.<\/p>\n
Mr Yermak, who led Kyiv’s negotiating team trying to hash out terms after Washington presented a draft backing Russian demands, confirmed his apartment was being searched and said he was fully cooperating.<\/p>\n
Watch: Zelensky says his chief of staff has resigned<\/p>\n
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In a joint statement, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office said the searches were “authorised” and linked to an unspecified investigation.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the two anti-corruption agencies unveiled a sweeping investigation into an alleged $100m (\u20ac86m) kickback scheme at the state atomic energy company that ensnared former senior officials and an ex-business partner of Mr Zelensky.<\/p>\n
Mr Yermak, 54, has been a close friend of Mr Zelensky since before the one-time sitcom star embarked on his political career, and helped guide his 2019 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
He has not been named a suspect, but opposition politicians and some members of Mr Zelensky’s own party had called for his dismissal in Ukraine’s worst wartime political crisis.<\/p>\n
Today’s searches are likely to inflame tensions between Mr Zelensky and his political opponents as Kyiv faces mounting pressure to accept a peace deal that could force it into painful concessions.<\/p>\n
In a statement today, the European Solidarity opposition party criticised Mr Yermak’s role as a negotiator and called on Mr Zelensky for “an honest dialogue” with other parties.<\/p>\n
“The president should not limit himself to comfortable communication with his faction – he is obliged to explain to the entire parliament … what directives and ‘red lines’ were given to the Ukrainian negotiating team,” it said.<\/p>\n
\nAndriy Yermak has been a close friend of Volodymyr Zelensky for many years<\/p>\n
Ukraine in ‘deep political crisis’, says Kremlin<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the resignation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff had plunged the country into a deep political crisis.<\/p>\n
“In Kyiv, events are taking place which reflect a deep political crisis provoked by corruption scandals,” TASS news agency said Peskov told reporters.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think anyone needs at the moment to provide an answer to the question of what this will lead to in the end.”<\/p>\n
The US-backed peace push comes as Russian forces grind forward along several parts of the sprawling front line.<\/p>\n
Moscow says its troops are close to capturing the eastern city of Pokrovsk, which would be their biggest prize in nearly two years.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a 28-point US peace plan leaked last week could be “a basis for future agreements”.<\/p>\n
He demanded Kyiv withdraw troops from eastern land it holds before Moscow stops fighting.<\/p>\n
Speaking to The Atlantic magazine this week, Mr Yermak said “no one should count on us giving up territory”.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Viktor Shlinchak, of the Kyiv-based Institute for World Politics, described the searches as a “Black Friday” for Mr Yermak and suggested Mr Zelensky may be forced to dismiss him.<\/p>\n
“It looks like we may soon have a different head of the negotiating team,” he wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak, a close ally of the president who has headed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-164940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}